


OQPromptParty

by YouAreMyFuture23



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: #OQPromptParty2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-04 17:10:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 40,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14024835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YouAreMyFuture23/pseuds/YouAreMyFuture23
Summary: This is prompt number one in a series of hopefully seven (if I can finish them all in time). I plan on having them tie together.I imagine this being post final battle. No more curses, no more villains, everything is peaceful.In this series Robin never died and he and Regina have been together through everything. They have become a little family together with their two boys and are enjoying domesticity. So you could say this entire series embodies prompt 16. No one dies and everything ends happily.Zelena still masqueraded as Marian, but never slept with Robin, so no baby. After Rumple killed Zelena she pretended to be Marian to get back to Storybrooke, but she was too scared to reveal herself so she continued the charade. When Regina discovered the truth she went to New York to confront them. Zelena apologized for everything she's done and worked hard for her redemption.Boom! It was that easy to redeem Zelena.Any mistakes are mine and I hope you can forgive me for them.I hope y'all enjoy this series!…Prompt numbers:41. Regina has mad PMS (just cause I think Robin figuring this out would be hilarious).147. ChocolateEntry Day: MondayHere goes day one of #OQPromptParty2018





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is prompt number one in a series of hopefully seven (if I can finish them all in time). I plan on having them tie together.
> 
> I imagine this being post final battle. No more curses, no more villains, everything is peaceful. 
> 
> In this series Robin never died and he and Regina have been together through everything. They have become a little family together with their two boys and are enjoying domesticity. So you could say this entire series embodies prompt 16. No one dies and everything ends happily.
> 
> Zelena still masqueraded as Marian, but never slept with Robin, so no baby. After Rumple killed Zelena she pretended to be Marian to get back to Storybrooke, but she was too scared to reveal herself so she continued the charade. When Regina discovered the truth she went to New York to confront them. Zelena apologized for everything she's done and worked hard for her redemption.
> 
> Boom! It was that easy to redeem Zelena. 
> 
> Any mistakes are mine and I hope you can forgive me for them.
> 
> I hope y'all enjoy this series!
> 
> … 
> 
> Prompt numbers:
> 
> 41\. Regina has mad PMS (just cause I think Robin figuring this out would be hilarious).
> 
> 147\. Chocolate
> 
> Entry Day: Monday
> 
> Here goes day one of #OQPromptParty2018

 

* * *

 

**Womanly Joys**

 

There are certainly more important things he should be worrying about at the moment, namely the woman on top of him rolling her hips, but it’s just so damn distracting that he has to say something.

He knows her, knows her body better than his own, every dip, every curve, so he notices it immediately.

“Love,” he’s cut off by a grunt and moves his hands to grip her hips when she slowly grinds them over his just where he needs it. Has to clear his throat to find his voice again before continuing, “Are… are your breasts bigger?”

Feels strange asking, especially in the middle, but when they so clearly are he can’t not. It would drive him mad if he didn't.

“What?” She asks as she leans back to thread her fingers through her hair, followed by another well placed roll of her hips that has whooshing out of both of them. And she must not have comprehended the question because she's still looking up at the ceiling and rolling her hips, taking him in and out slowly. Has his mind going fuzzy and his eyes rolling to the back of his head.

He slides his hands up her sides to cup her breasts and it pulls him back. There's definitely something different. “They feel fuller.”

“Do they?” She looks down at him and winks the adorable way she does, eyes closing practically at the same time. It makes him scoff and pull his bottom lip between his teeth as the corners of his mouth tip up.

She's flirting with him to change the subject, he knows it, but she won't get off that easy. Not even by rolling her hips forward, which she's doing at the moment, to make him forget. He moves his hands to still her, to further prove that he is not just going to drop this.

“I'm not wrong, am I?” He raises a knowing eyebrow at her when she opens her mouth and starts to shake her head. She was about to lie to him.

“Maybe I'm just bloated.” He watches her slowly slide her hands up her sides to grip and squeeze her breasts. It's a distraction tactic, one that works very well, especially when she starts to tweak her nipples and moan.

“They feel the same to me,” she whispers, all the while staring him down. He can feel it, her eyes burning his forehead, but he can't look away from her chest, her fingers twisting and pinching her nipples. She’s distracted him so much that he's allowed her to begin rolling her hips again without even realizing.

Taking the upper hand is all too easy for her in the position they're currently in. Something has to be done about that. She lets out a yelp when he takes hold of her waist and quickly flips them so he's over her, effectively claiming control.

“Now,” he says as he lowers his body to hers, fully pinning her between himself and the matress, “Why are you avoiding the question?”

“Because,” when she starts wiggling it urges him to lower more weight to restrict her movement further, “The answer will ruin the mood, and things were going so perfectly.” She tightens her walls around his member and it's all he can do to stop himself from thrusting further into her.

After screwing his eyes shut he takes a deep breath to refocus his brain. As much as he wants to continue he wants an answer from her more, and he's going to get one. So, he pulls away and out of her. The wine she lets out at being emptied lets him know an answer will soon follow. She doesn't like being denied so close to coming, something he's used against her many times. Never before as a way to get an answer from her, more as a playful form of torture. One he knows she secretly loves.

“Are you ready to tell me now?” He asks with a smirk at her glare.

With a roll of her eyes she huffs out a breath. She is turning a bit red and avoiding eye contact, it is absolutely precious. There aren't many occasions where she has became flustered, but he always enjoys them, this one included.

“When I'm within days of starting my cycle my breasts swell a bit, nothing more. Can we drop it now?” She spits at him.

She is angry with him now, he sees it in the way her body tightens, her lips purse, eyes remain focused somewhere to her left.

He's pushed too hard.

It happens often, him forcing her to reveal something she'd rather not.

“Milady, please don’t be angry with me,” he urges softly while moving a hand over to cup her cheek and turn her face towards him.

“I’m not,” she says flatley. With a short, forced smile she glances at his face then quickly down towards his chest.

She's angry.

“My intentions most certainly aren't whatever you're thinking.” He ducks his head and tries to make eye contact, she just shifts her gaze to the side. “My aim is to learn every single thing I can about you, even the things you're reluctant to share.”

She finally makes eye contact with him after rolling hers. “You want to know about my cycle?”

“Yes.” He says quickly. “Tell me about it. What are some of your other symptoms?” He pushes himself up on his elbows so there's a bit of separation between them, he wants to be able to see her more easily.

“You want to talk about this, now?” Suddenly there’s a hand snaking around him and he can't really remember what they were talking about anymore.

She knows how to work him, how to move her hand and have him grunting and dropping his forehead to her shoulder. He tilts his head up to give her a little nibble and she grips him tighter before her hand slides completely away.

“You ready to talk now?” She whispers against the shell of his ear. He can hear the triumphant smile in her voice. She's won, they both know it.

The conversation can wait, he can ask about it during a less intimate time. Right now, he wants to make her come.

He's pulling away from her just as she's reaching up for him. The pout on her lips says it all, she thinks he's going to make her talk and deny her, but that's not at all the plan.

“Turn over,” he says simply and that pout quickly turns into a knowing smile. She loves this position, they both do.

Once she's settled he leans over her to whisper, “We’ll talk later, but now, now I'm going to make you scream.” He feels her shiver at his words, then he's getting to work on his promise.

 

* * *

 

Later he finds out that she gets crankier days before her cycle, more hot headed and short tempered than usual. Occasionally she'll suffer from a headache, but not always. Her appetite also increases exponentially in the days before she starts. Then, sometimes, not always, she'll become nauseous and have an upset stomach. All things that could occur normally and be not at all connected with her cycle, that's the most confusing part.

When she starts a few days later he makes sure to mark it in his calendar so he knows her schedule for next month and can watch out for the symptoms she's listed. He also researches more on the internet, the way Henry showed him. She had called it PMS, which made no sense to him so he typed it into the computer and learned it meant premenstrual symptoms. It's not too difficult to retrieve information from the internet as long as you can spell, and there are numerous articles about women and their bodies. It's all so fascinating to him.

 

* * *

 

When the next month rolls around he does notice she becomes nauseous and there's a noticeable change in her temperament. One morning she just woke with a short fuse, for no particular reason. He tries his best to steer clear of her wrath, is delicate with her and accommodating, but no matter what he does or says it is wrong. There is no way to win so he concedes, lets her snap and scoff and roll her eyes at him.

There's also the matter of her appetite increasing. She seems to snack a bit more, has popped more pieces of chocolate into her mouth than he can count. Which is one of the reasons she snapped at him. He walked into her office, freshly bought chocolate in hand, thinking they may lighten her mood.

It's going on the second day of her short temper, he wants to do something to help. Christ is he wrong. She is snapping at him the second they’re placed on her desk.

“What’s this?” she asks shortly with a quick glance at the new object on her desk, then her eyes are back on the paper in her hand.

He’s interrupted. Shit. Now she’s going to either let him know he’s fucked up, or she’s not going to say another word to him. He’ll see which it is after this response.

“I thought you might enjoy them.” And here comes the phrase that can end him or get him dismissed. He takes in a deep breath and lets the words out with it, “Maybe lighten your mood a bit,” he finishes with a shrug.

Her eyes shoot up to him and he knows he’s done. She is definitely about to chew him to pieces.

“Oh,” she drops the pen and paper from her hands and rolls her chair back. As she pushes herself to stand and leans over the desk towards him he can feel his adam's apple bob with his thick, nervous swallow.

She is about to hand him his own ass.

After her eyes narrow at him and she cocks her head to the side she says, “My mood hasn’t been pleasant?”

He immediately raises his hands and shakes his head, “No, I-” But she is definitely not going to let him finish that.

“So I haven’t been in a good enough mood for you?” She leans back and crosses her arms over her chest. He can hear her shoe tapping on the tile floor as she stares him down. She is pissed.

“No.” Bloody hell. “You’ve just been a bit short lately,” he looks down at the ground and shoves his hands into his pockets. Looking sheepishly back up at her he focuses on her pursed lips and raised brow. She’s still tapping that foot because she knows he hasn’t finished and she’s waiting, so he finishes his thought. “And I think we both know why. You’re hormones-” but she’s cutting him off again.

“You don't know a damn thing about my hormones.” She wants to scream that at him, he can tell. The vein in her forehead is starting to protrude out a bit further with her struggle to stay composed. “I have a million things that need to be seen to today and I don't need you coming in and interrupting me just to say you're not happy with my mood.”

“I understand that,” he says with a nod. “I wasn't aware of how busy you were, I'm terribly sorry.” He places a hand over his heart and looks into her eyes.

He sees them soften a bit with his genuine apology, but she's not done with him yet, they are hardening again within seconds and she's sitting back down in her chair and throwing the lid off of the chocolates.

“And you think chocolate will suddenly make me a nice person?”

“No, i-”

“So you thought that in bringing me chocolate it would magically fix your snoring?”

“What?” He is so confused. Where did that come from?

“Your snoring kept me up most of the night last night. You're accusing me of being in a foul mood and I'm telling you why.” She's reaching for a chocolate with a huff and popping it into her mouth.

“I'm sorry, I wasn't aware I was snoring.”

“Well you were.” She confirms after swallowing. “Very loudly.” Then another chocolate goes into her mouth.

He's just standing there with his hands pressing down into his pockets, waiting for her to finish chewing her chocolate so she can finish chewing him out.

“And another thing,” she turns her chair to the side and crosses her ankles up on her desk. “You've been wearing a new cologne and it makes me nauseous.”

“I'll throw it out,” he offers. Doesn't bother him one bit to chuck it in the garbage if it'll make her happy. It wasn't sitting well with him anyway. Anything but forrest just seems wrong.

She lists off several more insignificant flaws that he makes note of and plans to keep to a minimum around the time of her cycle. He agrees with every one of them, even if they are ridiculous.

She eyes him up before reaching for yet another chocolate. Just before putting it in her mouth she stops and lowers her hand to her lap. “You're just agreeing with me so I'll stop pointing out your flaws.”

“No,” he shakes his head. “I don't like the new cologne either,” he says with a smirk.

She rolls her eyes at his sarcasm. “Well it's not going to work.” Then she pulls her legs from her desk and stands to start pacing back and forth as she lists off more things he does that annoy her.

After every new annoying habit is voiced a chocolate is popped into her mouth. She clearly doesn't even notice she's doing it and it makes him want to smile, but he can't because she's still angry. All he can do is stand there, take her belittling and keep a straight face.

 

* * *

 

Later that night at dinner she's scooping herself slightly larger positions, more salad, a little extra pasta. He absolutely loves it. She never eats enough normally, even misses meals sometimes with the stress of things. Being the Mayor of a fairytale town is certainly not an easy task. It's good that she makes up for those missed meals with a few days of larger ones.

Once the meal is done he offers to deal with the dishes, tells her to go start a bath and relax, she deserves it after her long day. He expects an argument from her, but she just nods her head and heads for the stairs. He doesn't miss that's she's holding her stomach as she goes. She must be feeling nauseous or started cramping, more symptoms.

That was entirely too easy after their earlier argument, but he'll worry about that after the dishes are done and she's settled into the tub. It'll be easier to talk to her once she's comfortable and relaxed. So, he gets going on the kitchen. Starts with transferring the leftovers to containers and putting them in the fridge. Then he moves to the dishes, rinses and scrubs all the food from them before loading and turning on the dishwasher.  
He's making his way up the stairs twenty minutes later and he can hear the boys laughing in Henry's room. He decides to poke his head in to see what they're up to. They are both laying on their stomachs on the bedroom floor, flipping through Henry's book. When he walks into the room they both look up at him and start laughing more.

He leans against the doorframe and crosses his arms over his chest. “What are the two of you up to in here?”

“Just reading some stories,” Henry tries to get out without laughing, but fails.

“Story's about you, papa.” Roland says happily.

“Are you now?” Robin walks over to stand beside his sons and take a peek at what story is so funny. “And what is so comical?”

He kneels down beside Roland and messes his hair before scanning the books open page to see a picture of himself in the uniform of the Wicked Witch's guard. He remembers that heish, almost got him killed. “Why is this so laughable?” Surely not his near demise by their wicked aunt. Not so wicked now, but definitely back then.

“Your hat, papa.” Roland shakes his head at him like it should be obvious.

“It is a silly hat, isn't it?” They all start to laugh together at the absurdity of the outfit the witch made her guards wear. He felt absolutely ridiculous in it, took the hat off at the first opportunity.

Robin suddenly pulls Roland to him, tips him upside-down and starts to tickle his belly. He's laughing a bit too hard for his liking and something should be done about that.

“Papa, stop!” Roland yells through his laughter.

Robin pauses for a second, “Are you done laughing at me, then?”

“No,” Roland answers, shaking his head so hard that his entire body starts to swing with it.

“Alright then, the tickle monster will not cease,” and he starts to tickle Roland's sides with the hand not securely holding his little legs against his chest.

Robin stops after a few more moments of Roland's infectious laughter and lets him slide down his body to the floor. He's breathing heavily and is very red cheeked, but happy. “I believe that was sufficient punishment,” Robin nods.

“But you didn't punish Henry!” Roland accuses with a point in his brothers direction.

“Henry's not ticklish and that was the punishment that had to be delivered,” Robin reasons with a wink at Henry.

“Thanks, bud, for taking my punishment for me,” Henry says with a chuckle.

Roland crosses his arms over his chest and lets out a huff. “I don't like double punishment.” That has Robin and Henry both laughing.

Robin stands and straightens out his shirt from Roland's thrashing then says, “Well, the two of you enjoy laughing at my expense, I'm going to go check on your mother.”

“We will.” He hears Henry laugh when he walks out the door.

 

* * *

 

When he enters the bathroom she has a towel under her head and one over her eyes. As he walks closer she appears to be asleep, her breathing is deep and drawn out. He wants to make sure she's comfortable, that the water hasn't gone cold, so he walks over and kneels down to stick his hand into the water to check the temperature and it's a bit pink around her torso. He gently moves some of the bubbles away and sees blood.

He immediately starts to panic.

Something's wrong with her.

He starts frantically looking her over but there are just enough bubbles left that he can't see much without stirring up the water and likely waking her.

“Regina,” he says softly as not to startle her, but she doesn't wake and he doesn't have the time to be gentle. He drops a hand to her shoulder to nudge her a bit and says her name again, “Regina, love, you're bleeding.”

She starts to wake then and grabs the towel from over her eyes. “What?” She mumbles as she sits up, still a bit groggy.

“You're bleeding. Are you alright?” He's back to looking her over again before she answers, drawing the bubbles to the sides to clear the field, sliding his hands down her arms, over her legs, but he can't find the source.

“Damn it,” she curses under her breath, “you were right.”

His eyes shoot up to her face and narrow. “What?”

“What were you accusing me of earlier?”

“What are you talking about? Why are you bleeding?” He can't understand why she's being to cryptic. There's something wrong with her and she just seems annoyed with him again.

“I started my period,” she scoffs and leans back against the tub again.

Oh. Oh!

His eyes squeeze shut as a relieved breath escapes his lungs when realization sinks in. She's perfectly fine. When he looks at her after composing himself she has a hand over her eyes. She's not happy with him.

He feels silly now. That panic was for nothing. Why didn't that possibility even cross his mind? He knew she was close to starting, had accused her of precursory symptoms earlier that same day. He flew immediately into a panic and didn't think.

Removing his hands from the water he shakes them off and runs one back through his hair. The embarrassment from his overreaction is tinting his cheeks pink.

He should just leave her, let her return to her moment of peace. “I'm sorry for waking you.”

When he moves to stand she stops him with a hand on his at the side of the tub and a whispered, “I'm sorry.”

“What for, love?” He kneels back down and takes her hand to bring it to his lips.

“For my reaction earlier.” She looks down and away from him as she mumbles, “You were trying to help and I yelled at you.”

“It's already forgotten, milady.” He flips her hand in his hold to plant several kisses to her palm.

She looks up at him then quickly back away with a shy smile and he just loves it, thanks his lucky stars for the millionth time that this gorgeous, amazing woman chose him.

“What did I do to deserve you?” she whispers as she looks back to him.

“You let me see the real you,” and she's scoffing but he's being genuine.

“Just listen.” He instructs with a glare.

“You let me see your dark side so I can see how much you've grown in the light. You let me see you broken so I can help put you back together. You let me see you vulnerable and scared to let anyone in, but you trusted me anyway and let me into your heart and loved me despite it all.” She's tearing up on him and he thinks he should stop. She hates being so emotional, but he's not finished, there's more he wants to say.

He pulls the hand he's still holding to his chest to rest over his heart. “I love you so deeply and so completely that when I'm with you I want to burst with the realization that I have you, the most perfect woman in existence. You chose to trust me with your heart and it changed my world.”

He pauses and clears his throat. “You asked me how you got so lucky, but that's just not right because I am the lucky one. I get to fall asleep with and wake up next to the most gorgeous, fiery, strong, resilient, kind hearted woman.”

The tears are streaming down her cheeks now and she's just letting them. She leans up in the tub to cup his cheek and whispers, “I love you, so, so much.”

He sweeps his hand back into her hair to pull her so their foreheads are rested together and her lips are just a breath away from his. “And I you, my love.”

Then she's the one closing the distance and capturing his lips with hers.

The most perfect way to forget about their argument.

 

* * *

 

Within the next two days she's stopped bleeding entirely. It's a bit shorter than the normal length, which he makes note of. Looks it up when he gets a chance and learns that it can be caused by stress or unhealthy eating habits, both things she struggles with.

He relaxes after learning it’s nothing to worry about and doesn't bother her with it. If something were truly wrong she would come to him, has promised him that.


	2. Office Antics

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my big multi prompt chapter, I managed to get seven of them in here!
> 
> Prompt numbers (in order of use):
> 
> 228\. Regina wearing Robin’s sweater bc she’s cold and that’s all she can find.
> 
> 123\. They have the house to themselves but they bet they can keep quiet. They end up losing.
> 
> 91\. Robin comes to bring lunch to Regina but he finds her very sexually frustrated having been interrupted by the children the night before.
> 
> 76\. “We have to be quick”
> 
> 181\. They almost get caught in any type of sexual situation by any character.
> 
> 138\. Hook thinks something is amiss but accidentally walks in on Regina and Robin having sex he breaks his leg fleeing the scene.
> 
> 200\. Robin and Regina get caught getting handsy in public
> 
> Entry Day: Tuesday
> 
> And on to day two of #OQPromptParty2018
> 
> Any mistakes are mine and I hope you can forgive me for them. Also, I know I'm a little vague on some details but this is my first real attempt at smut and I'm not really comfortable getting too graphic.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

 

 

**Office Antics**

 

Robin walks into the bedroom to see Regina wearing one of his jumpers, and only one of his jumpers. She looks hot as sin as she's taking the folded laundry from her chaise and moving it into the drawers of her dresser. She must've gotten antsy being out on hold, it took him a bit longer to get there than planned. He told her to be waiting on the bed wearing nothing when he got home, but this is so much better. It's just long enough to cover her ass, but there's so much leg that it doesn't even bother him. She's got great legs.

He leans against the doorframe and crosses his arms. “I thought I told you to be naked when I got back?”

She jumps at his voice but turns around with a smile on her face. “I got cold waiting for you, this was the first thing I could find.”

“Well,” he smirks as he walks towards her. “As good as you look in this,” reaching for her hips he pulls her to him, “You look better out of it.”

“Why don't you make that happen.” She raises her arms over her head as an invitation, one he can't refuse. He pulls the sweater over her head and drops it to the floor.

“Bloody perfect,” he whispers before diving for her neck.

The foreplay is kept to a minimum as it's not really necessary, they've been teasing each other all day with texts and pictures, they are both more than ready.

After they'd worked together to get his level of undress to match hers they hadn't even moved from where they were standing before he entered her. One of her legs is hooked on his hip and they are rocking into each other rather quickly. Their pace is becoming too fast for his liking and he has a way to slow it down.

“Shall we play the quiet game?” Robin asks as he sucks a kiss over her pulse and she lets out a breathy moan.

“But we're alone.”

“So,” is all he responds with as he pulls back to make eye contact.

She smirks and pushes him back onto the bed. “You ready to lose again?”

“I don't plan on losing,” he says confidently.

Regina extends her hand for him to shake and he takes it. “May the best woman win,” she says with a devilish grin.

That's it.

He pulls her to the bed with the hand he's still holding and rolls on top of her. She's about to eat those words.

 

* * *

 

He's rutting into her slowly, but firmly. She's tilting her head back and it looks like she's barely breathing. Her face is very red and the muscles in her neck are straining. When she finally does take a breath it's loud, and if he's not mistaken, followed by a quiet whimper.

“You're making noise, babe.” Robin accuses with another jut of his hips after a strangled sounds partially escapes her throat. He's got her.

“Fuck quiet.” Regina grunts as the slaps a hand down on the mattress.

Robin stops and looks at her. “So I win?”

“Yes,” she yells with a huff, “You win!” She digs a heel into his ass and orders, “Just move faster.”

“As you wish.” Robin leans back to hook both arms under her knees, bending her basically in half, and starts pounding into her. After his victory he has no more need for teasing.

He can feel her start to flutter around him, and thank God, he is about to explode.

“Mom!” They hear Henry yell and they both freeze. “Mom got a call so she dropped us off.”

Damn Emma Swan! The one night they have to themselves and she ruins it.

“Mom?” Henry yells again.

Regina is pushing at Robins chest because Henry's voice is getting louder which means he's getting closer to the door. They need to separate, and she needs to get something on before Henry comes in.

She jumps off the bed once Robin moves to the side and lunges for her robe. After tying it around her waist she hears a knock on the door and the knob twist. She glances to Robin on the bed and he's gotten under the covers to cover himself, but he's tinting.

“Robin,” she harshly whispers and waves her hands at his waist. He looks down and his eyes go wide before he raises a knee and the problem is hidden. Just in time too, because Henry is sticking his head into the room.

“Did you hear me?” He asks.

“Yes.” She answers while crossing her arms over her chest awkwardly. Her breasts feel very on display, not to mention she can feel her hard nipples rubbing against it everytime she moves. “Was the call something serious?” She tucks a stray strand of hair behind her ear and tries to act normal, she feels so exposed having Henry see her all flustered.

“Nah,” Henry shakes his head, “Just a bar fight I think.” He's looking at her a bit funny, a bit accusingly, he's noticed somethings amis.

“Alright.” She looks at the clock on her nightstand. “You should get to bed, it's a school night and it's late.” She's trying anything to get him to leave before he figures out what he's just interrupted.

“Headed there now,” he answers slowly, like he knows she's just trying to get him to leave. “Just wanted to let you know what was going on.” He backs out of the crack in the door and almost closes it but sticks his head back in a second later. “I dropped Roland in his bed already, he didn't even wake up.”

“Good, thanks, lad.” Robin praises. “Good night.”

“Good night, Robin.” Henry nods at Robin then looks at her, “Love you, mom.”

“I love you,” Regina blows him a kiss then the bedroom door is closed. She drops down to the mattress and falls to her back while covering her eyes with both hands.

“That was close,” Robin says with a chuckle.

“Yes,” is all she answers with. She can't really understand how this is funny.

Robin sits up on the bed and hovers over her. “Ruined the mood, didn't it?”

Her answer is another, “Yes,” after she pulls her hands from her eyes to look at him.

“Alright,” Robin grunts as he moves to slide off the bed. “I'm gonna take a cold shower.”

That's fine, they are definitely done for the night. No better mood killer than your child nearly catching you.

 

* * *

 

After last night's interruption Robin is headed to Granny's to pick up two grilled cheeses and two salads to bring to Regina's office as an excuse to interrupt her work and hopefully finish what they weren't allowed to the night before.

He has been incredibly frustrated all morning, and knows she has to be as well.

Their damn children and their horrible timing. No. Damn Emma Swan for thinking it's alright to drop their children off without any warning on the one night they had to themselves. She had to know they would utilize it. He blames himself a bit also, overdid it with the teasing, as he usually does when they play the quiet game. But she always comes so much harder after drawing things out, which is almost always worth it, save for last night.

He walks up the stairs to her office floor but stops short of her door when he hears her groan. Peeking around the corner he can see her fidgeting in her chair, crossing and uncrossing her legs. She is definitely frustrated.

 

* * *

 

Regina hears a light knock followed by, “Is the Mayor in?”

She recognizes who that voice belongs to without looking up from her paperwork, would know it anywhere. It’s his voice. His smooth, sultry accent.

“Depends who’s asking.” She answers playfully, smiling into her papers so he can’t see it.

“Just a citizen with an incredibly important problem.” He says with a smirk. That comment makes her finally pull her eyes away from her work.

She recognizes that look, knows exactly what he wants and she intends to make him work for it, no matter how much her body is begging for it.

“What is this incredibly pressing issue,” she adds the next part to intentionally torture him, “Mr. Hood?” He loves it when she gets all formal while they’re flirting. She leans back in her chair and even begins to run the fingers of her right hand down the seam of her very low cut top.

Good choice in wardrobe today, she thinks.

She sees him exhale heavily after her words and simple, but oh so effective, movement. Her teasing is definitely working. If the slight bulge in his pants is any indication, it’s working very well. His adam's apple visibly bobs with his thick swallow.

Teasing him is just so fun.

 

* * *

 

“Well, Madam Mayor,” if she’s using titles so can he. He knows she loves them as well, makes her feel powerful when he calls her Your Majesty or Madam Mayor. Good things happen when she feels powerful.

“I find myself in need of your assistance with a very… hard matter.” He’s trying to suppress his grin, to be serious, but he’s failing miserably. He can feel himself smiling slightly despite himself, but can’t really bring himself to care. The game they’re playing is still going perfectly despite his slight break in character. She is all business and it helps pull him back in.

“I see.” Regina says calmly in response, her poker face still perfectly in place, she doesn't even twitch.

“I was in the middle of something last night that our children didn't let me finish.” He drops the bag of food in one of the chairs in front of her desk and walks around towards her.

“And what is that?” she asks as she turns her chair towards him and uncrosses her legs.

And that's it. He can't take it anymore. He's crashing his lips to hers and pulling her to her feet with a fist in her hair.

 

* * *

 

Snow has a question involving funds because she wants to take the kids on a field trip, so she makes her way up to Regina’s office after schools let out for the day.

It’s beautiful out, warm, uncharacteristically so for Storybrooke this time of year, and sunny. She is thoroughly enjoying her walk through the town. Says hello to Granny as she passes the diner, waves to Doctor Hopper as he passes with Pongo. She really has come to love this little town, maybe even more than the Enchanted Forest. There's electricity and running water here, things she has grown very accustomed to. Yes, she misses their old home at times, but she wouldn’t trade this one for anything.

Finally she arrives to Regina’s office and is about to knock on the door then just enter the room, a habit she's developed that Regina hates, but she hears some very… interesting noises coming from the other side and pauses, listens. When she fully realizes what she's listening to her eyes go wide and she can feel her cheeks heat.

Regina is moaning, quite loudly, with Robin encouraging her.

She knows she should leave, give them their privacy, but for some odd reason she can’t make herself go.

She knows it’s wrong. She knows.

Intruding on such an intimate moment is incredibly inappropriate, not to mention a massive breach of trust. Any decent human being knows, you hear people having sex, especially someone you know, you leave them be. Let them have their private moment. In her head she knows all of these things, but her curiosity is getting the better of her. She even dares to take a small step closer to the door so she can hear better, maybe see something as well through the slightly transparent door.

This is so wrong.

Yet, she’s moving even closer and pressing her ear to the surface of the door.

So incredibly, spectacularly wrong.

But so, so intriguing.

 

* * *

 

“How much time do we have?” Robin asks between kisses to her neck. He has the back of her thighs pressed to her desk as he rolls his hips into her. The friction is spectacular for him, even through the layers, and it must be for her as well because she's letting out these breathy moans that spur him on more.

“Not much,” Regina moans. He drags his lips from her collar to just under her jaw and grips her ass as he rolls his hips perfectly into hers, it has all the air whooshing out of her lungs. “We have to be quick.”

“Quick is is then.” Robin grips her hips and lifts her to sit on the edge of her desk then steps between her legs to kiss her.

“Uh huh,” she breaths when he pulls his lips from hers to suck kisses down between her breasts.

“Alright then,” he lowers himself to his knees and shoves at her skirt until she's lifting her hips from the desk so it can be rucked up, “let me be quick.”

It feels good, his talented tongue working her up. Could be better if he had more room, but her skirt is too tight, she can't open her legs the way she wants. “Let me take this off.” But Robin stops her from sliding off the desk with a hand on each knee.

“No, keep it on.” He orders. “It's so much hotter fully clothed,” and he's ducking his head back down to give her a firm suck.

He's right, they always have fun getting creative because of clothing. “If that's what you want, thief,” she teases, and gets a harsh nip for it.

She lets out a yelp and a hey as she pushes at his head playfully.

Robin pulls away to look at her. “If you're going to play so am I, milady,” he says with a smirk.

Regina rolls her eyes. “Just get to it,” she emphasizes the word, “thief. You're wasting time.”

“As her Majesty wishes.”

He doesn't play this time, just gets to business and has her moaning encouragements within seconds. He really is good with his tongue.

 

* * *

 

Things are just getting good. Snow can't see much through the door of Regina's office, but she can tell Regina is sitting on her desk and she can't make out Robin. That only means one thing, he's somewhere she can't see.

Someone's coming up the stairs, she can hear footsteps getting closer. She jumps and immediately walks away from the doors for the stairs. She tries to be casual and not rush out of there like she's guilty of something, but she just feels awkward. If someone finds out she stayed there for an embarrassing amount of time she will be mortified for the rest of her days.

When she reaches the middle of the staircase she discovers it's Hook she heard enter and her cheeks go a bit red. Seeing someone she knows fairly well will make trying to seem normal a lot more difficult.

“Hello, Killian,” she greets. That's normal right?

She must have been overly enthusiastic because he's quirking an eyebrow at her and nodding awkwardly.

“Hello, Snow. Is Regina in?” Hook asks.

He must be assuming she's just come from Regina's office, which she has, but she doesn't want him to know that. If she says she's just been to Regina's office and he goes up there he'll know she heard what was going on.

But he won't know how long she stayed, how long she listened. It should be safe to answer.

“She is, but I don't think she wants to be disturbed.”

Hook rolls his eyes. “Regina never wants to be disturbed, she'll have to get over it.” And he's climbing the stairs before she can stop him.

She should follow him, stop him, but she can't go back up there, it's too embarrassing.

Hook will hear them and leave, like she should have. There's no harm in letting him go.

 

* * *

 

Hook walks right up to Regina's door and turns the knob without knocking. If he announces himself before entering she'll just tell him to fuck off. The two of them have never gotten along and it's always easier to just get right to the point, there's less bickering that way.

He stops before pushing the door open after hearing a grunt. It's Regina he hears grunting on the other side and it sounds like something's wrong.

Throwing the door open he bursts in, “Regina is everything-” and he freezes.

Regina is leaning over her desk, skirt hiked up to her waist, with Robin pounding into her from behind.

The two of them don't notice him at first, they are a bit distracted. The door clicks shut and it has Regina looking up at him. Her eyes go wide and she straightens up and tries to cover herself but Robin's still oblivious.

“Shit! Robin!” Regina yells as she reaches back to smack his side to make him stop. He's still moving in and out of her like there isn't another person in the room with them.

After Regina hits him he looks up to see Hook openly staring at them. “What the hell, mate?” Robin yells as he pulls out and away from Regina and hikes his pants back up. “What are you doing?” He asks as he zips his fly.

Regina quickly pulls her skirt down to cover herself and moves to stand behind Robin.

“I’m just gonna…” he stumbles back towards the door and grasps the handle, “I'm gonna go.” He throws the door open and says a quick, “My apologies,” before hurry down the hall.

“Mate,” he hears Robin yell after him just as he reaches the stairs. He turns back to look for him and feels his foot miss the first step, all of a sudden he's tumbling down the stairs, and that's the last thing he remembers.

 

* * *

 

“Killian?” he hears someone whisper. When he peels his eyes open they land on Emma beside him. “You're awake. How are you feeling?”

There's a sharp pain in his head and his side when he tries to sit up and look around. “Just lay still, you're going to make it worse.” Emma orders.

“Make what worse?” he asks as he takes in his surroundings. He's in a hospital room. How did he get here? Why are there bandages over his entire right leg?

“You don't remember?” Emma asks. He shakes his head and groans from the pain of the movement.

“You busted in on us, fell down the stairs trying to leave and broke your leg.” Robin says from the doorway with a chuckle.

“Right.” He says with a wince at the memory. “Sorry, love.” He directs the apology to Regina who is standing just beside a smiling Robin with her arms crossed and a pinched expression.

“Apology not accepted,” she says curtly. “You shouldn't have walked into my office without permission.”

“I only did it because I thought something was amiss. It sounded as though someone was hurting you,” He stops and smirks at Robin, “Turns out it was the opposite.”

Robin huffs out a laugh and Regina elbows him in the side.

“It was an honest mistake, babe.” Robin loops an arm around Regina and pulls her into his side.

“It was,” Hook agrees. “Believe me, I didn't mean to see that. It's bad form to interrupt a mate during sex.”

Regina sighs. “Just don't let it happen again.”

“Will do my best,” he promises.

 

* * *

 

Later that night Roland, Henry and Violet are sitting at the bar chatting with Granny while she and Robin are in a booth back in the corner.

“I can't believe we've been interrupted twice now,” Regina grumbles. She is so hot and bothered she thinks she might explode.

Robin smirks at her frustrated tone. “I am just as uncomfortable as you.”

“Can we go do something about it then? The kids will be fine for,” she stops and bobs her head from side to side while she thinks, “twenty minutes.”

Robin just shakes his head at her like he thinks she's joking, which she clearly isn't. “I'm being serious.”

He leans back in the booth and loops are arm over her shoulder to pull her into his side. “Our food will be here soon. People will be suspicious if we leave,” he reasons.

She squeezes her eyes shut and huffs. “You're right.”

Robin pulls his arm from around her shoulder and drops his hand to her thigh. “But I can do something to relieve some of your tension,” he offers as his hand slides up her thigh.

“Robin,” she harshly whispers as she grabs his wrist. “We can't,” and she glanced around the diner, “Not here.” There are too many people. Not to mention their children are just across the room.

“You said yourself, the children are distracted. And no one's looking back here.” He leans in to whisper, “I'll be discreet.”

“But what if I can't be?” She can be quiet, that's not the problem, but her cheeks always go red the more worked up she gets. It's not something she has control over, and it's a bit obvious.

“You'll just have to stay calm then,” he says with a smirk as his hand dips inside the waist of her skirt.

She grips his forearm and gives him a warning glare. “Just let it happen,” he whispers as his fingers makes contact with where's she's wanted them all day.

She sighs at the contact and can't seem to bring herself to stop him. As long as he's quick it should be alright. The second he's finished she can excuse herself to the ladies room until she can calm down and appear normal.

Surprisingly he is working quickly. He's doing everything right, everything she needs. She closes her eyes, relaxes back against the booth and feels. Breathing through her nose is helping her stay quiet, and staying relaxed is keeping her movement to a minimum.

“Hi, you two.” Zelena greets as she sits in the booth with them. “Have you ordered already?” She asks as she picks up a menu.

Regina jumps and sucks in a breath. She didn't see her sister walk in, probably because her eyes were closed, and now she's sitting in the booth with them while Robin's hand is down her skirt applying a circular pressure that makes her want to cry out.

“We have,” Robin answers casually.

How can he be so calm? It's not fair. And he's still moving his fingers even though she's digging her nails into his arm. He's trying to get them caught.

Zelena looks at her and narrows her eyes. “Regina, you're all flushed. Are you alright?”

She has to answer. Her sister will know something's wrong if she doesn't. The second she opens her mouth Robin decides it's a good idea to change from circular pressure to a pinching roll. Instead of words coming out of her mouth a breathy uuuhhhh does.

Damn him. He's doing this on purpose. And now her sister knows they are getting handsy in the middle of Granny's. He'll pay for that later.

Zelena's face goes blank and her mouth drops open. It seems to take her a second to realize what's happening, that or she just doesn't want to believe it, but the second she does she's scanning both of them and leaning down to look under the table.

“Oh my God!” Zelena whispers harshly when she straightens back out and leans towards. “You're not?”

Regina turns beet red and Robin smiles sheepishly. They've been caught.

Zelena scoffs and looks around to make sure no one's within earshot before she says, “You two are like horney teenagers.”

“Just two people in love,” Robin says with another pinch of his fingers that has Regina whining through her pressed together lips.

“Okay,” Zelena jumps and slaps her hands to the table. “Hands where I can see them you two.”

“I don't think you want that,” Robin shakes his head. “Mine may be a little… wet.”

“Gross.” Zelena cringes and wads up a napkin to throw it at Robins chest.

“We've been interrupted twice in twenty four hours,” Robin reasons as he wipes his hand and shoves the napkin into his pocket. “Can you blame us?”

Regina sits up and straightens her skirt then smooths her hair behind her ears. She thought she would feel more embarrassed being caught by her sister, but she doesn't. Just feels a bit naughty, but no real remorse.

“You two go home before someone else sees you,” Zelena instructs. “I'll take the kids.”

Robin immediately slides from the booth and grabs her hand to pull her with him.

“Bless you.” Regina whispers as she passes her sister and gives her shoulder a squeeze.

They bid their children goodnight and inform them that their Aunt Zelena wants to spend some time with them and they'll be staying the night with her.

Regina asks Granny if they can get their food to go, tells her she's not feeling well. Which she isn't, has been a little nauseous all day, but no one needs to know that. Robin just thinks it's a good excuse for them to leave early without suspicion.

Once their food is handed to them they kiss their children good night and immediately head for home.

 

* * *

 

Robin collapses beside Regina on the mattress. They are both sweat slicked and panting.

“Well, that certainly made up for all the interruptions.” Regina huffs out. She's a bit hazy and light headed after coming twice in short order, but it's so worth it. She rolls over into Robin's side and rests her head to his chest. She can feel his heart beating just as rapidly as her own.

“Indeed.” Robin agrees. “Maybe we should get interrupted more often.”

They both look at each other and shake their heads. Not getting caught by their family is definitely better.

Robin loops his arms around her to pull her close and plants a kiss to the top of her head. “Not a bad day either way.”

“Indeed,” Regina smiles.


	3. Punishment to Fit the Crime

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt number:
> 
> 36\. Robin or Regina have to pick up a drunk Henry or Roland.
> 
> Entry Day: Wednesday
> 
> Day three of #OQPromptParty2018  
>    
> Any mistakes are mine and I hope you can forgive me for them.
> 
> Enjoy!

 

* * *

 

 

**Punishment to Fit the Crime**

  


She is boiling, absolutely seething. It's a damn good thing Robin is driving because she would be destroying every speed limit she's ever approved with her lead foot. Would be gripping the steering wheel so hard it would turn to dust like the hearts she used to crush.

 

It's taking everything in her not to look back, she is actively forcing herself to keep her eyes forward because if she doesn't the exact second she lays eyes on her son she won't be able to stop herself from yelling. The goal is to wait until they're in the safety of their home to lay into him. It likely won't do any good though, with the state he's in. She'll have to do a majority of her yelling and berating in the morning when he's a bit more coherent.

 

This is all still so unbelievable. Her son, her incredibly bright boy, went to a party and drank. In the Enchanted Forest this may be a bit different seeing as there are no drinking laws, but here, in the real real world, there are laws against anyone under the age of twenty-one consuming alcohol, and Henry is still just sixteen.

 

He has never done anything like this. Henry has always been very smart and well behaved. Something like this is so out of character for him. There has to be something going on that he's not telling her. Something he's keeping bottled up and is now trying to forget with alcohol.

 

How could she not have noticed something happening with him that could drive him to this? She feels like a terrible mother.

 

He needs to be punished, to be made aware that this behaviour is one hundred percent unacceptable. After that is accomplished she will talk with him, find out what's going on that he's keeping from her. But first, he will be severely disciplined.

 

There is no way in hell she will be able to talk with him camly until she yells a bit first.

 

When they got the call, one clearly not intended for them, and heard his slurred words they were out the door and in the car within a minute. Upon arriving and seeing him throwing back another gulp from a beer bottle she almost shot out of the car to run up to him and slap the bottle from his hand. Before she can even unbuckle her belt Robin's hand is around her wrist.

 

“I'll go. You're too worked up.”

 

She has to break eye contact before she shakes her head and says, “I'm fine,” or he'll know for sure she's lying, which she is. If she walks up to him now while he's joking and laughing with his friends and throwing back a drink she will explode and show everyone that the Evil Queen is still very much inside her. That's not something she really wants to do, but the embarrassment alone would likely stop him from ever doing anything like this again.

 

“You're not.” He shakes his head and brings the hand he's holding to his lips. “Let me. We both know you'll do something you'll regret later.”

 

She scrunches her face and mumbles, “Fine,” because he's right.

 

“Alright.” He leans over and kisses her cheek, “I'll be back.” And with that he's exiting the car.

 

Sitting in the car and watching him walk up to her intoxicated son is harder than she thought it would be. All she can see of Robin is his back, but she can see Henry's eyes widen when he sees Robin approaching him then they shoot over to where she is in the car.

 

The drink in his hand is quickly passed to the person next to him and he's saying something to Robin, likely defending himself, but Robin simply points to the car and there on their way to her.

 

When Henry gets in and sits down he says, “Mom,” then pauses. She knows what's coming and she is not in the mood to hear it.

 

“Don't,” she says simply. An explanation will definitely be heard, but not while they are sitting in different rows of a car, she wants him to look her in the eyes when he tells her why he was so irresponsible.

 

When Robin gets back into the car a moment later his hand immediately falls to hers on the armrest and stays there the entire ride home.

 

When they pull into the driveway no one moves to get out of the car, they all sit there in deafening silence like they did the entire ride home.

 

“Go to your room, we'll be up in a while.” Regina orders calmly. She needs him out of her sight for a while.

 

Henry listens, of course he does, starts weaving his way up towards the house and she has to drop her head into her hands.

 

“What do we do?” She mumbles into her palms. This is not something she ever imagined having to deal with.

 

“We talk to him.” She feels Robin's hand rub between her shoulders. “We find out what pushed him to drink and we fix it.” His voice becomes louder and she realizes his head is directly beside hers when he kisses her hair. “He's a good lad, he'll listen and never make this mistake again.”

 

Pulling her head from her hands she moves them to his cheeks. “Thank you.” There's a smile spreading on her lips despite how horrible she still feels, she can't help it when she looks at him after he's been so calm and level headed in a situation that has her more than worked up. This man, this damn man, he's perfect. “I don't know is what I'd do without you.”

 

He's smiling then and pulling his bottom lip between his teeth. Those lips deserve to be kissed, he deserves to be kissed until he knows just how much she loves him and appreciates him. And so she does, kisses him deeply and slowly, so he knows exactly how she feels.

 

When she pulls away he's licking his lips and humming and damn it if that isn't the sexiest thing she's ever seen.

 

“And you'll never have to find out.” He kisses her again, just a quick peck, over in a second. “Now, what shall we do about our delinquent?”

 

“Well,” she sighs, “He is most certainly grounded.” That much is definite, what she's unsure of is what exactly is the best form of punishment for his crime.

 

“The hangover to come can serve as a portion of it.” Robin says with a chuckle.

 

“True,” she smiles. He's in for a rude awakening in the morning.

 

A wicked smile spreads on Robin's face. “I may have an idea,” he says with an evil glint in his eyes.

 

He looks positively mischievous. What is he scheming?

 

“I'm all ears,” she says with a wave of her hand between them. She certainly doesn't have a plan.

 

“What are some of the things you want when you wake with a hangover?”

 

“Aspirin, coffee, dry toast,” she lists off. He knows all this, has brought her these things many times after nights out with Mal. “Why?”

 

“You like your sleep as well, and quiet, dimly lit rooms.”

 

“Yes,” she nods her head once and narrows her eyes at him, “But what does this have to do with a punishment?”

 

He looks at the clock on the dash, “It's nearly one. I say we leave him to his own devices tonight, wake him bright and early, open the curtains, maybe even let Roland do it. We both know how loud he can be in the mornings.” They certainly do. There hasn't been a morning since the Hood boys have moved into the mansion that Roland hasn't woken them bright and early, yelling for them to get up.

 

“Maybe tell him we were going to bring him some aspirin but we ran out.” They both smile at that one because she has magiced aspirin in her palm before when they had none. With the state they know Henry will be in in the morning the possibility of that likely won't even cross his mind. “I can cook some very runny eggs in the morning as well.” That's something that makes him nauseous even without a hangover.

 

“Hmm.” All of these ideas are very evil, may even be too much so for her, the former Evil Queen. Her son is where she has always drawn the line on manipulation, but after a stunt like this it seems some is in order. “Shall we say six am?”

 

“The sun comes up at five forty-five,” Robin says with a smile.

 

“Five forty-five it is,” she leans in and kisses him again with a smile.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Roland is in there room in the morning at precisely five thirty, he's never one to sleep in. They send him to Henry's room when they see the sun peeking in through the curtains and follow closely behind him to make sure Henry's blinds are wide open and the sun is streaming fully in.

 

Just as they predicted, Roland jumps directly on top of Henry and continuously yells for him to wake up.

 

“Roland,” Henry sits up and grabs his head, “Stop yelling.” He's squinting and groaning the second he opens his eyes.

 

Robin and Regina share a smile, their plan is working beautifully.

 

“Roland,” Robin says when the boy looks a little hurt by his brothers reaction. “Why don't we go make breakfast?” He jumps at that, always excited to help with something that makes him feel grown-up.

 

“Be downstairs in ten, Henry.” Regina instructs before walking out and closing his door. Robin winks at her and smiles before they're heading down the stairs to the kitchen.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Henry comes down fifteen minutes later, which she has decides to let slide because he's looking like death. He's pale, his eyes are barely open to keep out the light and he's rubbing his temples to soothe the ache in his head.

 

“Do we have any aspirin?” He whispers as he sits in a stool by the counter.

 

They glance at each other with barely counseled smiles as they prepare the eggs and pancakes. “I took the last two yesterday I'm afraid. Haven't had a chance to go out for more.” Robin announces as he pulls the pan from the eye and evenly plates the eggs.

 

She hears Henry groan behind her as she flips the last pancake. This all feels so cruel. But she has to do it, Robin is right, it's the best way to keep him from drinking again.

 

“Not feeling too well this morning?” She asks casually after dropping the plate rather loudly on the countertop top. Henry flinches at the loud clatter and she would feel bad if he didn't deserve this, to feel the full brunt of his first hangover and never want another, ever again.

 

“No,” he finally answers after Robin loudly places a plate of severely undercooked eggs in front of him. “My head is killing me.”

 

“Oh,” Regina fakes surprise, “Well, we'll try to keep quiet then.” She smiles at Robin as they sit in their seats and pick up their knives and forks. They had also made pancakes for a reason, the noise that comes with cutting them into bite sized pieces, especially when Roland does it.

 

It's a full breakfast of Henry cringing when a metal knife slides against a glass plate, or Roland asks a question very loudly to then remembers he's supposed to be quiet. Henry hasn't touched his food and he's gone a bit paler than before. The smell of the food in front of him must be churning his stomach.

 

“You need to eat something, Henry. It'll help your head.” Robin suggests before sliding his knife across his plate a little more harshly than he needs to and popping a bite of syrup coated pancake into his mouth.

 

Regina smiles into her plate when Henry grunts again at the harsh squeak of the knife. This is pure torture, and it's working.

 

Henry picks up his fork and slowly scoops up one of the few pieces of egg that's fully cooked and mixed with the runny mess. She watches him shakily bring the bite to his mouth and close his lips around it. The fork is still between his teeth and he seems frozen. He hasn't moved since the egg made contact with his mouth. All she's seen him do is swallow, very thickly.

 

The runny eggs have been churning her stomach a bit as well, which doesn't normally happen, so they must be making his do summersaults.

 

All of a sudden the fork is dropped to his plate with a clatter and he's pushing back the stool so fast it flips to the ground. He is out of the room in a flash and they hear him slam the bathroom door shut.

 

“Is Henry alright?” Roland asks with a mouthful of pancake and his brown eyes as big as saucers.

 

“What do we do when our mouth is full?” Regina asks with an eyebrow raised at him.

 

Rolans takes a large swallow and sinks down a bit in his chair after being chastised. “We wait to talk. Sorry.”

 

Regina smiles before saying, “Good.” She just can't seem to stay mad at him when he looks at her with those adorable brown eyes.

 

“What's wrong with Henry?” Roland asks as he looks between them.

 

Robin pulls Roland to him and sits him on his lap. “Henry's fine, he just drank something that made him sick.”

 

“Was it poison?” Roland nearly yells, concern and imagination running wild behind his eyes.

 

“Sort of.” Regina says as she moves to sit in Roland's now empty seat to be closer.

 

“Did someone try to poison him?” Roland moves to sit on her lap after he asks the question so he can curl into her chest. They've made him nervous. He always wants to curl up with her when he's scared.

 

She looks at Robin as she wraps her arms around Roland and rubs his back soothingly. The poor boy is so confused. How do they explain this adult thing to such a little boy?

 

“No, son,” Robin sighs, “Henry drank it himself.”

 

Honesty has always been important to them. From the beginning neither of them wanted to lie to their children. He thought it would be better to tell him Henry drank it himself so he wouldn't be scared of someone poisoning him too, but he just looks more confused.

 

Roland pulls away from her and sits up board straight. “Why would he do that?”

 

“Roland,” Regina says so he'll look up at her. “The poison Henry drank is something called alcohol.” She glances over to Robin and he nods his head for her to continue. “People like to drink this poison to help them forget bad things that happened to them.”

 

“Like when Mr. Gold almost shot me with an arrow?” Roland asks innocently.

 

“Yes, sweetheart.” Regina nods and runs a hand back through his curly. She still feels terrible about that. She was the reason Gold was there in the first place. “Henry had something he wanted to forget, but he drank too much of the alcohol and it made him sick. Do you understand?”

 

“Yes, mama,” he nods and slithers off her lap to the floor. “I don't ever want to drink alcohol,” he says with an adorable pinched little expression while shaking his head.

 

“Smart, lad.” Robin pats Roland on the shoulder with a wink that makes him giggle.

 

When the doorbell rings Roland jumps and immediately asks, “Can I answer it?!”

 

Regina opens her mouth to tell him no, but Robin cuts her off. “Yes, my boy. I think it's for you.” And Roland is gone in seconds.

 

“It's for him?” Regina crosses her arms over her chest and raises a brow at him.

 

“Yes,” Robin smiles. “I called Little John and asked if he could take Roland for a while, so we can talk to Henry without interruption.”

 

“Smart,” she nods. “Explaining that was hard enough.”

 

“I know,” he agrees.

 

 

* * *

 

 

It takes about twenty minutes, but Henry is finally shuffling back into the kitchen and sitting down.

 

“Henry, you feeling better?” He shakes his head with a groan and she feigns a pout. “I saved your food if you'd like,” she offers, knowing full well he'll reject it.

 

“I know what the two of you are doing,” he eyes them up accusingly. “You're making this harder so I never drink again…” he takes a deep breath, “And it worked. I'll never drink again.”

 

Regina and Robin share a smile before she says, “Good.”

 

“Can my punishment be over now so I can have some aspirin?” Henry wines as he drops his head to his folded arms on the countertop.

 

Regina smiles as she sits next to him and rubs his back. “Yes, you can have some aspirin.” With a wave of her hand a pill shows up in her palm. She waves it again towards the counter and a glass of water appears. ”But you should eat something first.”

 

“I don't think I can,” Henry whispers. “My stomach is flipping.

 

“That's what happens when you drink too much, especially when you've never had alcohol before.” She runs a hand over his forehead and pushes his hair back. “Why would you do this, Henry?”

 

It really is hard seeing him so miserable. He brought it on himself by doing something irresponsible, but this is enough, he's suffered enough.

 

“I'll get some crackers from the pantry,” Robin offers, but she knows it's an excuse to give them a minute alone.

 

“What's going on, Henry?” She leans down to catch his eyes. “This isn't like you.”

 

“Violet broke up with me,” he announces before turning his face down so she can't see him.

 

“Oh, sweetheart,” she rubs a hand through his hair at the nape of his neck.

 

She's a little relieved that it wasn't something more serious. Losing your first love is certainly not easy, but there are worse things. Like watching that first love be murdered right in front of you. But this isn't about her, it's about Henry and how torn up he is from his first breakup that it made him want to drink.

 

“I know it's hard, but you'll get past this,” she encourages.

 

“Will I?” He turns back to her with tears in his eyes, it breaks her heart.

 

There's a soft, genuine smile on her lips as she says, “Of course.”

 

“How did you get over Daniel?” And that's a tough question to answer.

 

“Well,” she clears her throat, “As you know, not very well.”

 

“Yeah, you went full Evil Queen,” Henry says as he sits up in his seat and wipes at his eyes.

 

She nods. He hit the nail on the head with that one. “I did some pretty terrible things out of hurt and anger because I thought that's what I needed to do to get past that loss. Get revenge on those that wronged me. I couldn't have been more wrong.”

 

“But it helped a little didn't it? Getting out all your anger.” She can see the fire behind his eyes as he speaks now. There's as much anger in them as there is hurt, which is alright, as long as he controls it and doesn't let it consume him.

 

The answer she's about to give will come as a shock to him.

 

“No.” She says truthful, to Henry's surprise. His eyebrows pinch together in confusion. “It just made me numb.” She leans into him to nudge against his shoulder, “Like what you tried to achieve with the alcohol.”

 

His expression softens and he looks away from her to his lap. “I think I get what you mean.”

 

“And what's that?” she asks. Has to make sure that what he is thinking is what she is saying.

 

“You can't run from your pain,” he sighs, “You have to face it to get past it.”

 

She smiles at him. “See, I knew you were a smart boy,” then leans in to rest their foreheads together for a moment.

 

“Thanks, mom,” Henry says when she leans back, “For talking and not yelling. I know how angry I made you and I'm sorry.”

 

“Don't thank me,” she cups his chin and shakes her head, “Thank Robin. This was all his idea.”

 

“Are the two of you talking about me?” Robin asks from behind them and they both jump.

 

“Seriously?” Henry asks, his surprise clear. “It was your idea to torture me?”

 

“Yes,” Regina nods and looks up at Robin when he moves to stand beside her, “It was his form of punishment.” She pats his hand resting on her shoulder.

 

“I have to say, it was a very effective punishment.”

 

“I'm glad to hear it.” Robin nods his appreciation at Henry's commendation.

 

“Don't think you're getting off that easily, young man,” Regina cuts in. “You're grounded as well.”

 

Henry sighs and slumps forward in his chair. “I figured that much.”

 

She has to smile at his childlike behavior. He seems so young sitting there pouting after receiving punishment. It makes her feel like he's not growing up as fast as he is. Her little Prince.

 

“Now,” she takes the packet of crackers from Robin, opens them and sits them in front of her son, “Eat your crackers and take your aspirin. You've suffered enough.”

 

“Thanks,” Henry sighs gratefully and plucks a cracker from the package.

 

Robin loops his arms around her shoulders from behind and drops his chin to her shoulder. She leans her head against his and they both watch Henry struggle to eat.

 

She sighs back into Robin and smiles. Something she thought was going to be a huge issue turned out so have a simple fix. Her son has vowed never to take a drink again and already seems to be in a better mood.

  
A parenting job well done. They make a pretty good team.


	4. True Love Conquers All

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt number:
> 
> 150\. Regina finding out she’s pregnant and she gets scared of Robin’s reaction. But he’s very sweet about it and gets super happy
> 
> Entry Day: Thursday
> 
> Day four of #OQPromptParty2018 guys!
> 
> Any mistakes are mine and I hope you can forgive me for them.
> 
> Please enjoy!

 

* * *

 

 

**_True Love Conquers All_ **

 

She's sitting on the closed lid of her toilet, hand shaking as it moves up to cover her open mouth.

 

This can't be true, it has to be a false positive.

 

Reaching for the box on the sink she rips open another test and repeats the process she's just finished, waits the five minutes to look down at another test that says pregnant.

 

Both of them can't be wrong, can they?

 

She runs her fingers back through her hair and rests her hand on the back of her neck with a sigh. It's just… she can't seem to wrap her mind around it.

 

Pregnant.

 

How is that possible?

 

The infertility potion she drank all those years ago worked. She remembers the burn of it sliding through her body and destroying any chance of her ever having a child.

 

So what happened? What changed?

 

She hasn't done anything to reverse it, didn't think there was anything that could.

 

The moment the potion slid down her throat she regretted her decision to drink it, spent a lot of her free time searching for a way to reverse it and continuously failing. The only avenue she was never able to try was true loves kiss. But it sounded so silly back then.

 

Who's going to love the Evil Queen?

 

But now she has her true love, her soulmate, the man she was destined to be with. A soulmate level love can certainly reverse an infertility potion if it can break a sleeping curse.

 

But she has to know for sure. So, she's poofing herself to the one person that can tell her. Mr. Gold.

 

“Gold?” She yells, and he's appearing from the back room of his shop before she finishes.

 

“Regina, to what do I owe the pleasure?” he asks casually, in true Rumple fashion.

 

“I need to ask you something,” she says as she walks over to him, “It's important.”

 

Gold looks at her, studies her actually. He appears to be taking in her appearance. But why?

 

"You're looking a bit under the weather, your Majesty. Dark circles under your eyes,” he points to her face, “Pale complexion, and if I'm not mistaken, a bit thinner." He says as he moves his finger to point to her stomach.  
  
"My health is none of your concern. I came here to ask you a question." She says as calmly as she can. He knows exactly how to push her buttons and she won't let him see it's working.  
  
Gold leans in closer to her and looks deeply into her eyes for a moment before a smirk comes across his face and he leans back again. She feels a chill creep up her spine at the look in his eyes.  
  
"You're pregnant." He says simply as he leans back to straighten out.  
  
Regina is frozen at his words. How could he tell immediately when she's only just found out? He knows what she did all those years ago, that she could never… but she is.  
  
She takes a deep breath through her nose to steady herself before speaking, to not get worked up. "You're sure?"  
  
"You, my dear, are with child,” he says with a nod. "This must come as quite a shock since you thought it impossible. All the more reason to celebrate, your curse has been lifted."  
  
"That's what I came to ask you. H- how is that possible?" She whispers in a shaky voice.  
  
She is in complete shock.  
  
Pregnant. She really is pregnant.  
  
"You know as well as I, true love can break any curse." He says with a roll of his eyes at the cheesiness of his own statement. "Even a self inflicted one."  
  
Regina can't speak. Her mind is racing with thoughts of Robin, of their time together.

 

When could they have broken the curse?

 

How did they do it without her noticing?  
  
Gold gave her another glance up and down before he spoke again. "Seems to be about twelve- no," he stops to look at her a second longer, "fourteen weeks,” he settles on.

 

He stops again and takes in a large sniff, “With a little girl.” He pauses and crosses his arms in front of himself. “I'm surprised you hadn't realized before." Holding a hand out towards her he continues, "Though, I can also see why you didn't, you aren't showing at all."  
  
Regina places a hand on her stomach as the other runs through her hair.  
  
Pregnant.

 

 

* * *

 

 

After returning to her bathroom she takes yet another test. No harm in being triply sure. And now she is because it's another positive.

 

Henry and Roland are more than enough, all hers and perfect in every way… But she has always secretly wanted another child, a child with Robin that comes from both of them.

 

Robin!

 

How is she going to tell him?

 

She doesn't have long to decide, can hear him calling her name from downstairs and she starts to panic a bit.

 

Should she tell him now?

 

Should she hide the tests and wait?

 

There hasn't been time for her to wrap her mind around it and she doesn't know what to do.

 

What will he think?

 

Does he even want another child?

 

They've never really discussed it because they both thought she couldn't have them.

 

She’s told him of what she did, of the potion she drank. It was one of the most difficult things she's had to tell him. It was stupid and one of her greatest mistakes. She is still ashamed of it, but he wasn't. He understood that she did what she thought was best to stop her cold hearted mother.

 

He is always so wonderful. All the things he learns of her past, the mass killings and tortures, and he still looks at her like she's a good person, a person worthy of redemption. And she is, now, has worked hard to be, but she certainly wasn't back then.

 

All he asks of her is honesty, he won't judge her as long as she's honest with him. So she will be, even if she's terrified.

 

She throws the box in the cabinet under the sink and holds the three tests behind her back.

 

“There you are, babe.” He walks into the bathroom and greets her with a kiss. “What are you doing in here?”

 

“You know I haven't been feeling well lately,” she starts, but he interrupts.

 

He rubs his hands up and down her arms. “Did you get sick again?”

 

“No,” she shakes her head and looks down at her feet. She takes a deep breath to muster up a bit more courage. “I was taking a test that can tell me why I've been feeling sick.”

 

He looks confused as he asks, “And did it give you an answer?”

 

She knows she's being cryptic, but it's buying her time. But his confusion turns to concern when she's quiet for too long. “Regina? Is everything alright? You're scaring me.”

 

She sighs one last time before she pulls her hands from behind her back and holds the tests between them. Robin takes one from her and inspects it.

 

She watching his face, waiting for a reaction but he's frozen. “Robin?” He's making her nervous now. He's been standing absolutely still for what feels like an eternity.

 

When he finally looks up at her his eyes are all misty and he lets out a shaky breath before asking, “You're sure?”

 

“Yes,” she nods. “That’s why I took three.”

 

Robin's face breaks into a wide smile before he's bending to pick her up by the waist and spin her around. Once he places her back on the ground he kisses her, deeply and passionately. When the kiss is over she pulls back to search his face. His eyes are bright and sparkling with excitement, and his smile is matching. “So you're happy?”

 

“So, so happy,” he says genuinely, followed by another quick kiss.

 

Of course he is. She feels silly for thinking he wouldn't be. He has secretly wanted another child, she knows, could see the hurt and loss when she told him she couldn't have them. He never let her see it though, it was as if he made peace with it immediately. It made her a little angry, not with him but with herself because she struggled with it right up until she found out she was pregnant. But none of that matters anymore, because she is pregnant and one of her greatest mistakes has been forgiven.

 

“It's a girl,” she blurts out. A detail that excites her immensely, it appears him as well.

 

His eyes go wide with his smiling gasp and he squeezes her tighter. “A girl?”

 

“Yes,” she nods with an excited laugh.

 

“We're having a girl!” He picks her up to spin her around again.

 

As she's spinning in his hold she thinks, is it possible to be this happy? She's waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the universe to decide that she's been given too much and take something back. But she's made peace with her past and done so much to make up for it. The universe must know that, know how hard she's worked and have finally forgiven her.

 

She's decided to not dwell on what could go wrong, but focus on how much is going right. Her family, her kids, her soulmate, and now a miracle baby.

  
Life is good!


	5. Pregnancy Perks and Drawbacks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt number:
> 
> 141\. Regina trying to cope with pregnancy hormones
> 
> Entry Day: Friday
> 
> #OQPromptParty2018 day five guys! Can't believe I made it! This was the tricky one for me. It definitely tested me!
> 
> This chapter is going to skip around a bit so I can hit on several different pregnancy symptoms. Hope it's not too much.
> 
> Any mistakes are mine and I hope you can forgive me for them.

 

* * *

 

 

_**Pregnancy Perks and Drawbacks** _

 

They told the children a few days after they found out about the pregnancy and they were both ecstatic. Roland jumped around the house while yelling  _I'm going to be a big brother_ over and over, it was adorable _._ Henry gave her a big hug and said he was really excited and that he's happy she's so happy.

Immediately after they informed Zelena, who squealed rather loudly and hugged them both, she offered to be her midwife and wouldn't take no for an answer. Neither of them had any problem with that. Zelena's definitely better than Whale, and Regina was planning on her sister being there for the delivery anyway, so it was perfect.

Snow cried and hugged her so tightly that she couldn't breathe, then immediately went into pregnancy tips. She's very helpful that way. If Regina ever has a question or concern Snow is the first person to call.

She feels blessed to have a family that's so excited for this new blessing in her life. This little girl is already so loved by so many people and it warms her heart.

 

* * *

 

Now that she knows why she's been feeling so nauseous, she can do something about. There's a simple potion she can brew, all she has to do is drink a sip of it every morning. Robin is a bit nervous about it, using magic on their child, but she assures him it's safe. The brew only includes natural ingredients, it's the same mixture a midwife in the Enchanted Forest would offer.

The nausea doesn't last much longer though, thankfully, because it was driving her mad. It's gone within a few weeks when she's well into her second trimester.

One thing that hasn't lessened is Robin's protectiveness over her.

Since the day he discovered her pregnancy she has fallen asleep and woken up with Robin's hand on her stomach, no matter their sleeping position. This morning is no different. She wakes to him rubbing her belly, just staring.

"I can feel a bump," he whispers. He must have noticed her shifting and realized she is awake, but he hasn't stopped sliding his palm over her lower stomach.

"Can you?" She sits up quickly and looks down. She's been waiting to start showing, is actually a little excited about it. She slumps back against the mattress again because everything looks the same to her.

"There's definitely a bump." He shifts to sit up so he can lean down and kiss her stomach. "Hello, Princess," he mumbles against her skin.

"You're ridiculous," she chuckles as she runs her fingers through his hair.

"I'm just happy," he smiles up at her before returning his eyes to her stomach. He's rubbing slow circled over it with his fingertips and smiling. He loves her and this baby so much and it overwhelms her all at once. Before she knows it she's letting out a sob and he's looking up at her with concurred eyes.

"Why are you crying, babe?" he asks as he swipes a tear away with his thumb then rests his palm on her jaw. He's looking at her, almost through her, then his face smooths and the concurs melts away. Somehow he's always able to read her by just looking, he must know she's not upset.

"I don't know why." She shakes her head, lets out a huff and looks up at the ceiling. The few deep breaths she takes do nothing to stop her tears.

He rubs his thumb over her cheek to draw her attention. "But you're happy, yes?"

"Yes," she cups both of his cheeks and looks into his eyes, "So, so happy."

He breaks into a smile and sighs in relief, "Happy tears then."

"Hormonal pregnancy tears," she rolls her eyes then aggressively wipes under them.

This is ridiculous, she's crying because of the way Robin looked at her stomach, is looking at her now.

"Your body's going through a big change, it's alright to be a little overly emotional." He settles back up by the pillows and pulls her to him. She rolls onto her side and lets him spoon her. The warmth that radiates from him is always comforting and settling, it helps calm her emotions.

She closes her eyes and sighs, "Thank you."

"Of course, my love." He plants a kiss to the back of her head then adds, "Anything you need."

And he has been there for anything she has needed. He held her hair back when she was vomiting and didn't know why. Always took care of the kids or dinner when she was too tired. Cleaned the house and did the laundry, everything. He has been perfect from day one, has never let her down, and she knows he never will.

She's nearly asleep again when she hears the door creek open. "Can I come in now?" Roland whispers rather loudly and they both chuckle.

"Come here, sweetheart." Regina says softly and Roland is crawling up the bed as she opens the covers so he can slip in beside her. He snuggles in next to her and Robin wraps his arms around them both.

Roland had been told that since there's a baby growing in Regina's belly that she is going to need some extra sleep, and he has been so good. No more running into their room before the sun and waking them. He comes in quietly now and only wakes Robin then they leave her to sleep. But often times once Roland's taken care of and Henry is up to watch after and entertain him Robin sneaks back into bed with her so he's there when she wakes.

The extra sleep has been so helpful, she can make it through the day a bit more easily and not fall asleep after leaning back in her chair for too long. There have been many occasions that Robin or Snow have walked in and caught her napping. Every time it was so embarrassing. She's the mayor, she can't be sleeping on the job. But Snow always assures her that it's fine, no one just walks into her office besides herself, Robin and Zelena. Her body needs the extra rest, she should take a proper nap on her couch in the middle of the day. But that is absolutely out of the question, she can make it through a day.

"Did you sleep enough, Regina?" Roland asks once he's settled.

"I did, baby." She kisses his forehead and and bops his nose with hers. "Thank you for being so quiet."

"I did good?"

"You did," she smiles and pulls him closer.

 

* * *

 

When Regina walks into Granny's later that day during her lunch break, intent on ordering a grilled cheese, something she's been craving, she smiles when she sees that Granny will be serving her.

They haven't told anyone else about the baby, they'll all find out eventually, for now she wants to keep it in the family. But Granny has been eyeing her suspiciously, like she knows something's different. It must be part of her wolf senses, but Regina knows that she knows. Besides that everyone else is oblivious.

The menu sitting on the counter in front of her isn't really necessary, she knows it by heart after over thirty years of it remaining basically the same, but she picks it up anyway to aid in making her selection of a side to go with her sandwich.

The last time she was here she discovered that she can no longer eat burgers, or meat of any kind really. Seems to be one of her weaknesses, meat, an instant way to make her queasy. A shame really, she loves burgers. But, it seems the baby will not be a meat lover. She can handle it, though, being a vegetarian for a few months. There are plenty of alternatives to meat, one being peanut butter, and the other Granny's amazing grilled cheeses. A perfect substitute for any type of animal flesh product.

Now, does she go a little healthier and order a salad, or fries, or maybe even a milkshake?

Never mind, the baby has made her selection.

Fries.

The pregnancy cravings have recently started to kick in in full force, damn things, and the baby definitely wants something salty. Could be worse, though. There could be some strange mixture of things that she craves instead. She's often heard about pregnant woman craving pickles and ice cream. Disgusting notion. Who could ever mix those two foods together?

"What would you like with your grilled cheese today, Your Majesty?" Granny asks from behind the bar as she tilts her head down so she can glance over the top of her classes, a knowing smile spreading across her lips.

Regina knows the older woman has figured out she is pregnant. They've never discussed it directly, but the two of them have an understanding of what's going on. Granny would never say anything out loud about her condition, she knows better than that. She'll just make little comments they both know the meaning behind that no one else will be able to see through. There have also been many occasions that she's caught Granny glancing at her stomach before looking at her face, probably not even consciously, when she makes the little comments. It's lovely to have the little secret between them, it makes her feel close to Granny, like they're friends.

"I think it's going to be fries today," she answers with a smile as she drops a hand to her stomach.

"Got it." Granny nods her understanding as she takes the menu from her hand.

"And," Regina says quickly causing Granny to turn back around, "A chocolate peanut butter milkshake," then adds a quick, "Small." If she's going to indulge she's at least going to do it in moderation.

Granny winks at her and smiles, "Comin' right up."

 

* * *

 

Her baby bump is starting to become a bit more obvious now as she's entered into her twentieth week and it makes her a bit uncomfortable. She's not going to be able to hide her condition for much longer. None of her clothing really allow for discretion. Every dress and skirt form fit to her body, and her pants aren't much better.

Robin walks up behind her after she's slid off yet another skirt that doesn't fit anymore and thrown it across the room. He grips both her shoulders and starts massaging them before asking, "I guess that skirt wasn't suitable?"

"No!" She huffs and shrugs his hands off. "Nothing is. None of it fits." She can feel her eyes starting to well up with tears and she lets out a grunt. "This is ridiculous!" She yells, "I'm crying because of clothing." And she is, fairly hard now.

Her emotions have been all over the place lately, it's been a struggle to keep them in check.

"We've talked about this," he walks up to her and rests his hands on either side of her belly, "Our growing daughter needs these extra hormones. Anything you feel, even if it's over the top, is okay."

He pulls her into a hug and holds her tight. She goes reluctantly at first and tries to push him away, but he persists and holds her tighter. Eventually she concedes and melts into him, that's when he starts to rub her back.

Great. Now she's crying more. He is always so supportive and calm with her ever changing moods. He listens to all of her whining and complaining and always calms her down. She doesn't deserve him. Wrapping her arms tightly around him she fists his shirt in her hands and burrows her face into his neck.

Once she's calmed down Robin pulls away and tucks some hair behind her ear, "Let's go through these clothes, I'm sure we can find something that will accommodate our growing daughter." He leans down and peppers several kisses to her belly then takes her hand to pull her towards the closet.

"Don't bother," she stops him and takes a step back. With a wave of her hand and some purple smoke she's dressed in a perfectly fitted red scoop neck blouse, high waisted black pencil skirt and a flowy black jacket that drapes perfectly to disguise her abdomen.

"Why didn't you just do that before?" Robin laughs.

"Because I wanted to be able to get dressed without having to use magic," she shrugs. "But apparently I won't be able to do that until I have a whole new wardrobe."

"Are you going to magic that as well?"

"No." She looks at the clothes strewed about the room and smiles. "I'm going to put on what I want to wear then magic it to fit."

Robin walks up to her and wraps his arms around her waist to pull her towards him. "That sounds like an excellent idea."

"I think so," she tilts her head to the side and smiles.

"Brilliant you are," Robin praises then bumps her nose with his and she feels her cheeks flush.

She rests their foreheads together and sighs. "I love you."

His lips are a breath away when he whispers, "And I love you."

Then their lips connect and she's not sure if he made the move or she did, but it's perfect, he's perfect.

 

* * *

 

One morning Regina is standing in her closet in only her bra and a pair of slacks, staring at her body in her full length mirror. She is running her hand slowly over the curve of her rounded stomach.

When did that happen?

It feels like she woke up this morning and it had grown a foot. She can't believe it, she's really showing now, no more hiding. This is her twenty fifth week of pregnancy, it shouldn't be so surprising. Yet, it still is. She hasn't really felt pregnant until this moment, with her belly all rounded and defined.

Snow pulls her from her thoughts when she hears her yell, "Are you ready to go to breakfast, Regina? Where are you?" from her bedroom. "There you are." Snow stops when she enters the closet. "Oh, you are getting so big." Snow says excitedly, a sweet smile spreading across her face as she watches her standing there looking at herself in the mirror.

"It's like I grew overnight." Regina shakes her head. She has not been able to pull her eyes away from the mirror, away from her stomach.

"I noticed a week ago." Snow says casually with a wave of her hand as she walks closer to Regina.

"How did you notice before I did?" Regina asks, a bit shocked as she looks over her shoulder at Snow.

"You have always been so slim and fit, I noticed the minute your stomach started to round." Snow places her hand over Regina's that's still resting on her stomach and gives it a pat.

"I didn't realize you paid such close attention to me." Regina looks at Snow, eyes narrowed, but she doesn't glance up from her stomach to meet them.

"Of course I do. I promised I'd look after you and this precious girl." Snow rubs her belly sweetly and they both share a smile. "Now,you need to get dressed or we are going to be late." Snow orders before she turns to walk out of the room, but Regina gasps and stops her.

"Regina, what happened? Are you alright? Is it the baby?" Snow rushes up to her and places a comforting hand on her back.

"It just felt like something ran across my stomach. What was that?" Regina asks, looking down and running a hand over her belly.

"Oh my gosh!" Snow squeels, "Regina, you just felt the baby move for the first time. This is so exciting." Snow crouches down, places both hands on Regina's stomach and waits.

"Wow," Regina sighs. "That's not what I imagined it would feel like, it's strange." She is still a little shocked at the fluttering in her belly. Her daughter is finally big enough to feel her move. It makes it all feel more real.

"It's really light at first, but as the baby grows you'll feel it more." Snow's lips curve into a wide smile when the baby moves again against her hands, then she's turning to yell, "Robin!" and Regina jumps.

Thirty seconds later Robin walks into the closet and chuckles at them, "What are the two of you doing?" They probably do look ridiculous with her half dressed and Snow hunching forward towards her.

"Regina felt the baby move." Snow answers before she has a chance to, then steps to the side so Robin can feel for himself.

His face lights up and he immediately walks over to her and drops his hands to her belly. "Really?" he asks.

Regina nods her head then freezes when she feels another flutter. "Can you feel it?"

He nods once and kneels down in front of her so he's eye level with her stomach. "Hello, little girl," he says against her belly and it makes her giggle when the movement becomes stronger. Robin looks up at her wide eyed and amazed. "She recognizes my voice."

"I think she does." Regina laughs when Robin leans in closer to say, "I love you, baby." And she finds herself running fingers through his hair.

"Alright," Snow interrupts the moment. "I'm headed to Granny's to meet everyone," she announces as she looks down at her watch. "You two better not be far behind."

"We will," Regina nods, "This girl and I are hungry."

"Let's go then." Robin pushes himself to his feet, grabs the shirt she has hanging next to the mirror then helps her into it. "The boys will be excited to feel their sister."

Regina is sitting in a booth at Granny's diner with Henry beside her and both his hands resting on her belly. There are people walking through the diner staring at them and she doesn't even care. Let them figure it out.

"Wow!" Henry says excitedly. "That is so cool! What does is feel like for you, mom?" He looks up to her with wide, curious eyes and he looks so much like the little boy he used to be. It has her heart clenching at the memories of her little boy, not so little anymore.

"It feels like something small's running across my stomach, sort of like a bug." It's the closest thing she can think of to compare the feeling to.

"Weird." Henry says with a shrug before he goes back to eating his breakfast.

"My turn! My turn!" Roland yells as he slides from the booth beside his father to squeeze in beside her and Henry. He moves his small hands back and forth on her belly for a minute then looks up at her. "I don't feel anything."

She lets out a laugh at how adorably impatient he is. "You have to be patient, sweetheart. She'll move again soon."

And he is, sits there for over five minutes before there's movement again. "I feel it!" Roland yells as the baby shifts against his little palms. He drops his forehead to her belly next and says, "Hi, little sister," and she nearly bursts into tears. He loves his sister so much already and he hasn't even met her. She just knows he is going to be such a good big brother, along with Henry.

This little girl can't get here fast enough.

 

* * *

 

Her stomach has been unsettled all day, and so has the baby. Something just feels off and she's not sure if she should be worried. She tries to stay calm. One comfort is that the baby's moving, she can feel it, so she must be alright.

That's when the cramping starts out of nowhere. Small things at first, barely noticeable, but they increase in intensity while she's alone in her office. It terrifies her.

She picks up her phone and dials Robin immediately.

"Hello, milady," he greets cheerfully.

"Something's wrong," she says through a groan as the pain increases. Something's definitely wrong.

"What's going on?" Robin asks. His voice is calm and steady, which she knows is for her benefit.

"I'm cramping," is all she says. It's all she can get out in her panic. It's too soon, she's only thirty weeks.

"I'll call your sister. Just try to stay calm and keep breathing, I'll be there as quickly as I can." The call drops suddenly so he can get hold of her sister as fast as possible. She throws her phone onto the desk and grips onto the arms of the chair.

She leans back, closes her eyes and tries to take steady breaths. Maybe nothing's wrong, maybe she's just imagining this. Or maybe the universe finally woke up and realized that nothing she loves has been taken away from her lately.

No. She needs to stop thinking like that, it's making her panic.

The breaths she's taking are too quick, they need to be slowed. She focuses on inhaling until her lungs are full, then blows it out slowly. All the while her hands are running over her belly searching for any type of movement, there hasn't been any since the pain started and it's terrifying.

There's a puff of green smoke near the door of her office that slowly dissipates to reveal her sister. "What's going on?" Zelena asks as she comes to kneel in front of her.

She moans then says, "I'm cramping."

"Alright, it's alright." Zelena smiles reassuringly as she rubs a hand over her thigh. "I'll find out what's going on." Then her hands move to settle over her belly and she can feel the magic emanating from them. Zelena is scanning for abnormalities, her magic will be able to detect if anything's off.

"What is it? What's going on?" Robin yells when he enters the room and runs up to them.

"Shhh." Zelena shushes him harshly, "I'm trying to find out."

Robin kisses her temple and takes one of her hands. She latches onto it like it's a lifeline. He's always been able to steady her with a simple touch, but it doesn't seem to be working for this. They just have to watch and wait while Zelena concentrates on finding the problem.

Regina feels the magic stop and watches Zelena drop her hands to her sides and sigh. "The baby's fine," she announces in relief.

"She is?" They both ask at the same time.

"Your uterus is just going through a trial run, Braxton hicks," Zelena rubs her belly and smiles. "They can be very painful sometimes."

"So they're both alright?" Robin asks cautiously.

"Yes," Zelena nods.

Regina curls forward and groans again. "Will they stop?"

"Eventually." Zelena waves her hand in front of herself and a glass filled with water appears. "Take some deep breaths and drink some water. They should stop soon."

Regina takes a sip of the water, then another and takes a deep breath. Knowing these pains are nothing serious makes it a little easier, but not any less painful.

"You may experience these a few times before you actually go into labor, you'll figure out the difference between these and the real thing."

"I hope so. That was terrifying." She's still a bit shaky so she takes another sip of water and a deep breath. The pain is still there, but it's lessened a fair amount.

"It was." Robin kneels down beside her and moves a hand to the center of her stomach. "Don't scare us like that little one." Almost on cue the baby kicks at the sound of her father's voice. She always responds so well to him. Daddy's little girl already.

 

* * *

 

Regina is sitting on the sofa with her feet in Robin's lap. He had insisted on rubbing them when he saw her shrug out of the heels she insists on wearing. Made sure to tell her he could tell her feet were hurting, which also meant her back was hurting, which it is, because she sighed and closed her eyes the minute she was out of them. She didn't think he could see her, but he must have snuck up on her. He certainly possesses a thief's ability to sneak about without detection. Damn him. He tells her all the time that he doesn't understand why she needs to wear shoes she well knows are uncomfortable.

It probably is stupid to wear three inch heels whole thirty five weeks pregnant, but it won't stop her.

He starts digging his thumbs into the arch of her foot and she lets out a grateful moan. "Right there." That's where all the tension is.

He shakes his head, "If you wouldn't wear those blasted shoes your feet wouldn't hurt you so at the end of the day," he says as he shifts his concentration to the ball of her foot.

"I've told you, I like the height. They make me feel powerful." She answers as she tilts her chin up a bit in full regal manner. Then she closes her eyes and relaxes back on the arm of the sofa with a sigh when he switches feet.

Damn that's nice. He really is good with his fingers. She smirks as the thought of him doing something far less innocent with those fingers pops into her head. With all the extra hormones her body has been producing her sex drive has gone through the roof. There have been many times that she's just caught a glimpse of him and it turned her on. To his surprise she has jumped on him many times and insinuated sex in the oddest places. And bless him he's never turned her down, not once.

She hears him scoff then opens her eyes to look at him. "My love, you do not need any assistance in that area, believe me."

"Thank you, thief, but you are easy to overpower." The wink that follows is wonky, she can feel it, but it has him smiling either way.

"Is that so?" Robin questions with a chuckle as he pulls one of her toes and it gives a pop. "What about me is easy to overpower, hmm?"

"You aim to please," she reaches forward and pats him on the cheek, "It's one of your best qualities."

"And what do I do that leads you to believe I'm a pushover?"

"Well, who's rubbing whose feet." Regina answers with a wag of her eyebrows.

"Touché." He concedes, with a nod. "That can't be all."

"Let's see." She starts tapping her chin with her pointer finger as she thinks. "Whose house do we live in?"

"Yours, yes," he nods, "Because mine is a tent and you refuse to stay in the woods. Go on."

"Who always picks the show or movie we watch." That one is her one hundred percent.

"You again because I know nothing about that magic box. Next." Robin waves that one off easily because he really doesn't know much about the television, that wasn't a very good one. No matter how much he bashes it, though, she knows he's come to enjoy it. Especially when it's just the two of them curled up on the couch under a blanket and their hands can wander.

She is starting to have trouble now, she knows he can see it in her scrunched expression and the way she's chewing her lip.

What else can she say? There isn't much more.

Oh! She's got something.

"Who ends up on top?" She says with a raised eyebrow and a satisfied smile on her face. She's won, came out with a metaphorical kick to the balls.

He's been smiling through all the others, but after that one it drops and he tries to look hurt, but fails. He's smiling again before saying, "Going for the low blow then, ay?"

Regina just nods her head at him.

"You're getting a bit too cheeky for my liking," Robin says, so he starts tickling her feet instead of rubbing.

"Robin stop that, you know I don't like it when you do that." She warns with a harsh tone and a warning finger pointed in his direction.

"I know you don't like it, because you're so ticklish." He continues to lightly run his fingers over the bottom of her foot, even through her death glare.

She absolutely hates it when he does this, he knows it too, mostly because she hates the fact that she is so ticklish. No matter how hard she fights it, she's ticklish. It's a little weakness about herself that not many people know. No one actually, save her and Robin.

He discovered it accidently one night when he was ghosting his hands up her side. She squirmed at his touch then tried to hide it, but he noticed. After that he began testing different places on her body to see if they were ticklish as well. She absolutely hates it. He knows exactly where to touch her to get her squirming and giggling like a little girl. He also knows other areas that have her eyes rolling into the back of her head and moaning, but that's a different monster all together.

"Robin, I mean it. Stop." She warns sternly then tries to pull her feet away.

"Or what?" He says defiantly, grabbing her ankles and continuing his torture.

Regina is fighting him, kicking her legs and saying stop through her laughter then suddenly her brow furrows, her mouth falls open in a gasp and she sits up slightly.

Robin's hands freeze. "Regina, babe, what is it? Is it the baby?" She clutches her stomach and groans again, that should be pretty obvious. "Are you having a contraction?"

She leans further forward and squeezes her eyes shut. "Okay, stay calm," Robin soothes. "I'll go call Zelena and get her to come over right away." As he moves to stand up she stops him by grabbing his wrist. "Breathe, babe." He encourages softly as he rubs her back gently.

She turns her face away from him because she's smile, can't help it. If he sees that he'll know she's lying. He moves to kneel down in front of her so he can see her face. Looking at his concern she can't suppress it anymore, she starts openly laughing.

"You little devil. Did you just fake labor?" When she laughs in response he continues. "You did not just scare me half to death to get me to stop tickling you." He really does look hurt now.

"It worked didn't it." She says through her laughter.

"What a bloody terrible thing to do. I was genuinely worried." He's pouting now and it's so cute.

"I know, and it was adorable." Regina places a hand on his cheek and runs her fingers through his stubble.

"I'll forgive you," he says reluctantly, "But only because you are carrying my child." He rubs his hand over her stomach and leans up to peck her lips in a quick kiss.

"Oh, so if I wasn't pregnant you wouldn't forgive me?" She crosses her arms over her chest and sits back on the sofa.

"Love," he chuckles, "If you weren't pregnant we wouldn't be in this situation at all."

He's got her there. "True."

He kisses her one last time before he stands up and extends his hands to her. "Come on, love, let's go and eat. I did go to all the trouble of ordering Granny's for us," he says sarcastically.

"Oh," she over exaggerates her surprise. "However did you manage that after your long day?"

"Selfless I am. Couldn't very well let my pregnant woman go to all that trouble could I?" He teases as he takes her hands and hoist her up.

She immediately hunches forward and moves a hand to the bottom of her stomach with a groan. Her grip tightens on his hand and she lets out a slow deep breath.

Robin looks nervous for a brief second but then he seems to remember what she did to him only moments ago. "Ha ha. Very funny. I'm not falling for that again." He says with an ingenuine laugh before he turns to make his way to the kitchen. Regina squeezes his hand even tighter and pulls him back to her.

"No, Robin. I really think I'm having a contraction." She bends her knees a little and lets out another groan. "Ah! Definitely a contraction."

"Shit. Okay." He runs his free hand through his hair so he can think a minute. "Sit down, babe." He grasps her other hand and slowly helps lower her to the couch. "What are you feeling?"

"Cramping." She says quickly and simply.

"Anything else?"

"Does there have to be anything else?" She asks in strained voice with a shake of her head. What a silly question.

"I don't know, I've never been in labor," he answers honestly.

Regina chuckles lightly then groans. "Ah, don't make me laugh."

"Sorry." He apologizes quickly. "It was not his intention to make your pain worse, I just wanted to lighten the mood."

She nods and lets out a hum. "What should I do?" He asks as she squeezes his hands a little harder for a second then releases them.

"You can go and get the food because I'm just messing with you again." She looks up at him with a smirk and his face drops. She fooled him again, the exact same way.

He narrows his eyes at her and crosses his arms over his chest. "You truly are evil."

"And that's why you love me." She leans in and kisses him then leans back and rubs her belly. "How about that food, the baby is hungry."

Robin scoffs at her as he stands to his feet. "Only because it's for the baby. You, madam, are in trouble."

"Oh," she says coyly, "Are you going to punish me, hmm?" She raises an eyebrow at him and her lips spread into a smirk.

"I fully intend to," he leans in to whisper the next part against her ear, "Later, in bed." He takes her earlobe between his teeth and gives it a little nip, it sends a chill down her spine. "I am going to tie you to the bed and spank you." He leans back and she can see the fire in his eyes. "I'm planning to tease you all night."

"Well, you better go get the food so we can get to it." She grabs his hand and pulls him towards the kitchen.

"Someone's eager to face her punishment."

"Can you blame me?" Just the thought is making her slick and sensitive. "I'd skip to it right now if I didn't need to eat something." In a heartbeat. But her stomach is growling and the baby's getting restless, that would be more than a little distracting. She can wait long enough to eat something though, her drive won't disappear in ten minutes.

"Not in the slightest," he answers with a smile and a pull of her arm so she's stumbling back towards him and he can catch her and pull her close. "If you knew what I had planned you may consider skipping the food." Then he leaves her there and heads for the kitchen.

She scoffs. "Now who's evil?" She yells at the back of his head. He turns back around so she can see his smile and wink and she just grunts her frustration. She really does need to eat, but it's going to be the quickest meal in history.

 

* * *

  

She has used her fake labor gag on Robin a few more times, it's too much fun making him squirm, and he falls for it every time. Not to mention, after every false alarm she has a punishment waiting for her, and she really does enjoy being punished.

But she's promised that she's done, she won't do that to him again. So, she's planning to try it on Snow shortly instead. It will be incredibly amusing watching her turn white as a sheet.

They are both in the nursery putting away the things they just spent all day buying. Once one starts shopping for cute little baby things it's hard to stop. They came home with bags and bags of cute little onesies and dresses and shoes and toys. The bags are now all strewed about the room as they both try to decide where to put all of the new items.

Regina sighs as she sits down in the rocking chair to get off her feet for a moment and watches Snow pull out this and that then put them in their designated places.

It had been a good day, surprisingly. Regina never would have thought she could enjoy an entire day of shopping with Snow. In fact, she almost backed out because she didn't think it was a good idea for them to spend so much time together, thought it would end up in an argument. Much to her shock, they spent the entire day laughing and oohing and aahing at cute little baby items.

It's nice that they have become close. So close, in fact, that Regina feels she can mess with her a little.

When Snow is fully lost in her task and humming a little tune she decides it's time. She lets out a small moan and shifts in the chair. Snow glances over at her for a second but continues with her task. Alright, got her attention. Regina lets out a slightly louder moan and shifts again. Snow pauses what she's doing and looks over to her.

"Regina, are you alright?" Snow seems to be concerned. She heard the first moan but ignored it, but the second didn't have the same result.

"Oh, yeah," she waves her off. "My back is just hurting, probably from all the walking." As she rubs her stomach and scrunches her face up a little she shifts again. "Continue with what you were doing, I'm fine." She assures with a small smile and a nod.

"If you're sure." Snow says skeptically with a raised eyebrow.

Regina continues to look uncomfortable while she rubbing her stomach. Nothing is getting done because Snow glances over to her every few seconds and nervously fidgeting with the clothes she's trying to fold.

Snow's thinking she's trying to play off labor pains, her mind always goes to the worst scenario when it comes to her. In Snow's defense, it's something she would do. Hide her pain from others until she can't anymore.

Snow chose to go through bags and pull things that need to go on the shelves because they're nearer to her so she can keep a closer eye on her. Got her. Now to just bring it home. Regina lets out a slow hum as she drops her head onto the back of the chair.

Snows head snaps in her direction at the sound of yet another moan. She definitely looking uncomfortable, is gripping tightly onto the arm of the rocker and scrunching her face up, that should do it.

Snow walks over to her and squeezes her shoulder. "Regina are you in pain?" She asks as she kneels down in front of her.

Regina immediately shakes her head. "Hmm, no. I'm just a little uncomfortable. Don't worry I'm fiiiiine." She drags the last word out and grips both of the arms of the chair a little tighter. Another hum passes her lips for good measure and Snow's eyes nearly bulge out of her head.

"Oh my goodness. Regina, I think you're in labor." She exclaims as she stands and looks at her watch. "I'm going to time it, let me know when it's over."

"I really don't think that's necessary. It's just a little back pain." She pauses and widens her eyes for dramatic effect. "That just wrapped around to my stomach." She moans again and moves a hand to her stomach. "Ouch."

"Okay, breathe it out. Just try to relax." Snow says quickly then takes a deep breath. Regina can't tell if it's supposed to be for her benefit or Snow's.

She may be taking this too far, but it's so easy.

"How's your pain level?" Snow moves in closer and places a hand on Regina's stomach so she can feel. "It doesn't feel any tighter than usual, but that doesn't mean anything. In early stages of labor contractions can't be felt from the outside." Snow rambles.

Regina shakes her head at Snow's babbling then answers her question. "My pains about a one," then she moans and curls forward, "Okay two." That should definitely make Snow nervous. Anytime she admits that she's in pain Snow flips her lid.

Snow starts pacing and huffing in frustration. "Which really means a five," She says with a roll of her eyes. "You've probably been having little contractions all day." She's pacing back and forth as she babbles. "Why didn't you tell me you were uncomfortable? Why did you let me keep you out so long? All that time on your feet probably accelerated your labor even more!" Snow yells very quickly as her voice gets higher and higher. "I can not believe you went all day without telling me you were having contractions."

When did it go from the beginning stage of labor to she's been having contractions all day? Snow really knows how to blow something out of proportion. Maybe this is too much, may be she should stop. But before she can say anything Snow is yelling more.

"If your pain is a five you have to be more that half way through." She takes a glance at Regina then corrects herself, "Actually, knowing you, you're probably fully dilated and you're only just telling me you're having contractions because you can feel the head crowning."

"Snow, the head is not crowning." Regina chuckles. She is getting a bit ridiculous now.

Snow comes back over to Regina and bends down in front of her again. "Are you feeling any pressure," she glances between Regina's legs, "Down there?"

"No," she shakes her head. "You really need to calm down." It's time to tell her. "I was just messing with you."

Snow's face goes blank as she processes Regina's words. "What?" is all she can get out of her mouth.

"I'm not really in labor," Regina admits, "I was just trying to see how you would react. I must say, your reaction was definitely better than Robin's." She crosses her arms over her chest and rests them on her belly before she leaning back in the rocking chair. She really is satisfied with herself. That was the best reaction yet.

"You- you've done this before?" Snow still doesn't seem to believe what she's hearing. She looks very stunned.

"Several times." She smirks at Snow's disbelieving expression.

Snow smacks her arm and yells, "Never scare me like that again!"

Regina just laughs. "Hey, don't hit a pregnant woman."

"I will hit a pregnant woman if she just made my heart stop. I really thought I was going to have to deliver your baby. You really scared me, Regina." She sits back on the floor and rests her arms on her knees. The deep breaths she's taking must be to get her heart rate back under control. Oh no. She just terrified her.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think you would react like that. I promise," she places a hand over her heart to show that she is serious, "I won't do it again." This may have been a poor choice. Now Snow's going to be paranoid every time she's around her.

"Good," Snow nods, "I don't think I could take it again." She exhales heavily, clearly still frazzled.

"I'll make sure you're not around when I actually do go into labor."

"That's probably best," she nods.

Regina watches her open her mouth then close it again. There is clearly something she wants to say. "What is it, Snow?"

"There's something I've been wanting to ask you," she says a bit sheepishly, "And you definitely owe me after that."

Snows pausing, waiting for a response so she gives one. "Go on," then waves her hand between them and smiles.

"I would like to be there when this baby is born." Snow reaches out and rubs her stomach as she quickly adds, "But only if you're comfortable with it."

"Well you just made things a lot easier," Regina smiles. "I was planning to ask you that very thing."

"Really," Snow asks, surprised.

"Well, we both know that at some point Robin will become too much and I'll snap at him." She knows what she's like in pain, irrational and angered very easily. So, when Robin is forced away from her because he gets on her nerves, which is inevitable, or Zelena pushes too hard and is no longer allowed to touch her, she will have that third person to lean on until her temper settles and she can look at the other two again. Snow is perfect for that.

"You were really going to ask?" Snow asks with her hand pressed to her chest. She looks so touched. "I can't believe you want me there for something so special." Snow is all giddy now, the deceit before completely forgotten.

"Of course," Regina reaches out for one of Snow's hands, "You have continuously been there for me and this baby, I would love to have you there to help me bring her into the world."

"Yay!" Snow claps her hands together and bounces up and down a bit. "I'm so excited." Then she stands and hugs her so tight.

The rest of the day is spent putting everything away, with Snow still keeping a close eye on her.


	6. The One with the Birthing Video

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt numbers:
> 
> 19\. Regina is pregnant and she and Robin watch a birthing video together.
> 
> Entry Day: Saturday
> 
> #OQPromptParty2018 day six! Almost to the end.
> 
> Any mistakes are mine and I hope you can forgive me for them.
> 
> Some of you may recognize this storyline, let's see how many people do.
> 
> Enjoy!

 

 

* * *

 

**The One with the Birthing Video**

Robin walks into the den and scans the room in search of Regina, she's supposed to be home soon and he wants to be sure he didn't miss her coming in while he was in the shower. This is the last room he has to search and he comes up empty again. She must be running late.

They are supposed to watch a film together tonight since the children are both away with Emma and Killian. It will be one of their last opportunities to have a night alone together for a while since the baby is due to come in a matter of weeks. Apparently it's something of an adult film that she wants them to watch together, isn't appropriate to view with young ones in the vicinity. And he's perfectly fine with that. If it's something she enjoys he likely will as well. Speaking of, that must be it sitting on the side table next to the sofa.

He decides he'll put it in and get everything ready for them, impress her with his new found knowledge of this modern technology. He remembers Henry's lesson. How to open the slot with the button on the top, how to put the disk in the correct way, then how to get to what's called the menu. It's not too difficult a process, nothing near as complicated as that game box and it's controller. Henry had tried to explain that as well, with all its buttons and levers, but it had all gone straight over his head. Roland had picked it up instantly but he still can't make sense of the blasted thing. Both boys quite enjoy it, so he's sure he'll get it eventually with some more practice.

The tape starts to play the moment he hits the button with the triangle on it. He's a bit proud of himself for remembering. It starts off with a side view of a woman, a very pregnant woman, lying on a bed completely naked. This isn't at all what he was expecting. Regina is pregnant herself so that may be playing a factor in her choice. She has been feeling a bit unsexy as of late, which she shouldn't. To him she's even more sexy while carrying their child, has told her that many a time only to have her scrunch her face up in that disapproving way she does. Maybe this sort of tape will make her feel more desirable if he plays up his interest a bit. It shouldn't be too hard, he's always found pregnant women beautiful. It may just be that he's bias to the two woman that have carried his children, but they are gorgeous nonetheless.

All of a sudden the woman starts screaming and the camera angle shifts. Suddenly it's pointing directly between her legs and he looks away immediately because it feels wrong to be looking at her like that. He didn't think the tape Regina had in mind would be so graphic.

The woman is still screaming and he has to look, has to know what's going on. When he looks up he sees something he was not at all expecting. There's… there's something coming out of her. He knows it's a baby, he knows that, it just doesn't look at all like a baby.

Looking away seems impossible. After looking up at the image he can't seem to break his wide eyed stare at it. There's dilating and pushing and stretch and fluids and blood and he can't look away.

The head slowly emerges and he cringes then finally looks away. That is enough, he doesn't need to see more.

He's fumbling with the damn thing called a remote that he still is not sure how to decipher, trying in vain to get rid of the graphic images. He's trying with all his might not to look up at it but, as horrifying as it is, he can't help himself from glancing up at the screen.

The woman is still pushing and screaming when finally the image freezes from one of the dozens of buttons he must have clicked. He lets out a sigh and puts a hand up to block the frozen image still on the screen.

Remote still in hand he looks down at it, after calming down he remembers that the button on the top right turns off the television so he presses it and the screen goes blank.

Finally, some peace.

 

* * *

 

"Robin," Regina yells upon entering the house. "Sorry I'm late," and she has to smile at the phrase that just left her lips. "I got held up at work, but I'm home and ready for our kid free night."

But first things first, kicking off her heels she lets out a relieved sigh. Much better. Not that they were comfortable before, but now with the added strain of her growing belly they are even more painful.

She assumes Robin will be in the kitchen starting on dinner so that's where she heads.

The kitchen's empty when she reaches it, but the oven's on with a dish inside. He's already prepared and begun cooking the lasagna she had planned for tonight.

Bless that man.

Normally she enjoys cooking, especially when it's lasagna, but tonight she really wants to get off her feet and not stand in the kitchen cooking. All those times he's watched her put it together, all the questions and failed attempts, he has finally mastered the art of assembling her lasagna.

An odd sound catches her ear so she walks out of the kitchen and follows the noise. It sounds to be coming from the den.

When she walks into the room she sees Robin sitting there with an odd expression on his face. "Babe, what's wrong." She walks up to him and drops a hand to his shoulder.

He blinks his eyes heavily before he looks up at her, a bit flustered. "I watched part of the tape you got."

"Without me?" She sits down next to him and drops a hand to his thigh. "Did you not like it?"

He doesn't move, just sits there staring somewhere in front of himself. The stunned expression on his face is telling her that a sex tape isn't really for him. And that's fine, it's not much her style either, just something to try. "Well, we don't have to finish it if you didn't enjoy it." The hand on his thigh starts creeping up, "We can just make our own." And he's jumping away from her and looking very confused.

Was it something she said?

"You want to film our child being born?"

"What?" How did he get that from what she said? It's not at all part of the…

The birthing video!

She looks down at the coffee table in front of them and sees the blank case sitting there open. "Is this the tape you put in?"

"Yes, it's the tape you wanted to watch."

"No, this is the birthing video Snow gave me." She uses his leg and the arm of the chair to push to her feet and walks over the her desk. She pulls another tape from her bottom drawer and holds it up for him to see. "This is the tape I meant for us to watch."

"Oh," Robin exhales and drops his head into his hands.

Regina chuckles at him and walks back over to sit then leans into his side. "Come on, it can't have been that bad. Childbirth is a natural thing, it's beautiful."

"Oh, really?" He pulls his head from his hands to look her in the eyes when he says, "You watch for yourself and tell me how beautiful it is."

Scoffing she reaches for the remote and turns on the television and prove him wrong. She presses the previous button a few times so the disk skips back to the beginning then presses play.

What she sees is nothing short of horrifying.

A gasp escapes her mouth and she's quick to cover it with her hand. She didn't know that part of a woman's body could stretch that much. There have been several occasions that she and Robin have pushed her boundaries, and her small amount of discomfort always paid off, but nothing like that.

When the head starts to emerge she jumps for the pause button and freezes the image.

Now she's the one frozen and stunned. Childbirth is something she's never really witnessed from that angle. She knows it will hurt, but she didn't know what it would look like.

How can her sister want to be the one to see that? It doesn't make sense to her.

"You alright?" She hears Robin ask.

It takes her a moment to find her voice, to clear her throat and actually form words.

"After that crushing a heart doesn't seem quite so violent," she leans back against the sofa and rubs her belly, "And is most certainly less torture."

"I've never witnessed you crushing a heart, but I'm sure that is an accurate statement." Robin drops a hand to her thigh and she jumps and he pulls it away. She doesn't really want to be touched after watching that video.

A little too late for that.

Looking down at her belly she starts to panic. "I have to do that."

"What?"

"I have to do what that woman just did," she gestures towards the television.

"Sweetheart," Robin moves a hand to rest on her belly but she slaps it away.

Her anger is a bit misdirected, but she doesn't really care. This is his fault, she didn't get pregnant alone. Wouldn't have been able to get pregnant at all if he wasn't her soulmate and cured her infertility with true love making. At least that's what they've decided to call it. There really is no other explanation.

"I can't do that, I won't be able to do that." The image of what that womans body did is still playing in her brain as she shifts uncomfortably at the thought of her body being put through that.

"Of course you will, your body's built for it." He kisses her cheek despite her cringe. "You are the strongest woman I know."

He's trying to fix this, but he can't. No matter what he says she will still have to do that.

"Just, don't," she sighs. "I just want to forget about this and the fact that I have to go through it in a few weeks. So, let's just think about something else."

"Alright," Robin nods.

After a minute of silence Robin speaks up. "Did you think about something else?"

"No!" she whines as she throws her head back against the cushion. "All I did was think about it."

"Me too!" Robin yells as he runs his hand back through his hair. "Everytime I close my eyes I can see it."

Regina sits up and looks at him. "We have to get over this." Then she's moving, not very gracefully with her round belly but managing, to straddle Robin's legs.

"What and you doing?" he asks as he leans back to give her room, a bit stunned by her bold move.

"I'm forgetting," she whispers as she leans in to kiss him. Just before their lips touch she pulls away and takes a deep breath, hears him do the same. At least this seems to feel just as awkward for him as it does for her. But she is pushing past this, she is going to kiss him. And so she does, with stiff lips and no emotion.

"We can't," he mumbles against her lips and she's pulling back.

"Oh, thank God," she breaths. He's helping her move from over him and back sitting beside him before she even asks for help.

They sit there a few minutes in more deafening silence, both still thinking about the images they saw on the tape.

It's a bold move, but she leans into his side and rests her head on his shoulder.

"We can still salvage this night, can't we?" he asks.

"Yes," Regina shakes her head then nods. "Yes. We'll go finish dinner and forget all about this." They need to go do something else, anything else to take their minds off it.

Robin drops his head to rest on hers, "I'm not very hungry."

"Me either." Regina admits. "Maybe we could try watching the actual tape I had meant for tonight," she suggests.

"Alright." Robin nods. Good because, yes, that will probably alter the mood. "I'll just get this one out." And he presses a button on the remote that causes the tape to play again.

The woman is pushing and grunting and the baby's shoulders are starting to emerge. She turns her head into his shoulder because she just can't look anymore.

"No," Robin nudges her, "look."

When she looks up one of the shoulders is now out and the other one slip slides free and there's a baby, a beautiful little baby.

"Oh," she sighs as the precious baby is placed on the mother's chest. The woman is no longer screaming but crying and smiling down at her baby, all the pain of a moment ago forgotten.

"Look how happy the mother is now." Robin smiles broadly as he leans forward, watching the screen intently.

Regina is no longer watching the tape, but watching him and the dimpled smile spreading across his face.

"I love you," she whispers as she wraps her arms around his waist.

He throws an arm over her to wrap around her back and pull her closer. "I love you," he says with a kiss to her lips. "And I want you to know that I'll be there, through all of it, helping you through."

"I'm counting on it," she says jokingly before kissing him again.

"Evening salvaged?" He mumbles against her lips.

"Definitely," she smiles into another kiss.


	7. Normal Day Turned Exciting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt number:
> 
> 167\. Movie night (changed to day) with the kids.
> 
> Entry Day: Sunday
> 
> The last day of #OQPromptParty2018 I'm sad guys. But I hope you enjoy!
> 
> There are a lot of point of view jumps in this, I tried to separate them all so it's less confusing.
> 
> Also, deciding on a name killed me!
> 
> Any mistakes are mine and I hope you can forgive me for them. And so begins my last chapter of #OQPromptParty2018
> 
> I hope you guess enjoy the conclusion, it's not an easy one.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_**Normal Day Turned Exciting** _

 

It's a day, not unlike any other in recent times. Robin wakes to the sunlight peeking in through the curtains and turns his head to bury his face into the pillow, the bright light hurts his still sleepy eyes. The feeling of the soft satin fabric against his skin momentarily startles him, as it does every morning, then he realizes that he's in Regina's bed rather than his own. It's been years of this, him falling asleep with her in his arms then waking momentarily confused as to his location. His mind slowly wakes and he starts to remember that this is his life now. He has the amazing privilege of falling asleep and waking up next to his soulmate every morning for the rest of his days.

He lifts his chest up off of the bed slightly so he can turn his head to his left, where she lays. She looks so beautiful and peaceful lying there on her left side facing him. She is deep in sleep, her chest moving with every slow drawn out breath. He loves that he is the only one allowed the privilege of seeing her this way. Her perfect face cleared of it's colorful mask, hair with its natural curl, not forcibly straightened, her body barely concealed in a silk nightgown instead of her structured suits.

Her nose suddenly scrunches up along with her eyebrows and she lets out a sigh. From a dream he supposes. She is so adorable when she dreams, her face contorting into cute little expressions. He wants to reach out and touch her cheek, but he doesn't dare for fear of waking her. She hasn't slept much in recent days, doesn't get many moments of peace. Especially since an unexpected surprise began making herself more known.

Regina suddenly groans and rolls onto her back, her hand rubbing the side of her ever expanding stomach. Robin now realizes that the cause of her scrunched face is not a dream, but their little princess making herself known in the early hours of the morning. Robin adjusts so he is laying on his side facing Regina, props up on his right elbow so he can still see her face, then reaches out to rub her stomach with his left hand.

Regina sighs and mumbles, "She won't stop kicking." Her voice is raspy and quiet as it's the first time that it's been used for the day. Though, it sounds more tired than under used. Robin slides in closer to her so she doesn't have to strain.

"Did you get any sleep, my love?" He whispers into her temple before kissing her there.

"A little I think, though it doesn't feel like it." She whispers as if she is on the brink of sleep again already, her voice barely audible. She has to force the words past her throat, he can tell.

"Is there anything I can do?" The baby then kicks hard enough for him to visibly see it and his mouth drops open a bit. He has seen that many times before, a foot or a hand protruding past the normal expanse of her rounded stomach, but every time it amazes him.

Regina jumps and squeezes the wrist of the arm Robin has on her stomach. "If you can't get this baby out, you have nothing I want." She huffs and moves a hand up to cover her eyes.

Her belly is extremely sore from the incredible amount of movement she has been feeling in the past couple of days. She said it felt like the baby was doing flips inside her, and according to Zelena that was exactly what was happening. Said something about the baby turning into the birthing position to prepare for labor.

At her appointment yesterday Zelena said the baby was already head down, so why was she feeling like the baby is still doing flips?

The kicks are normally just uncomfortable, but with how soar her stomach is he knows everyone of them feel like a knife jab. At least, that's how she described what she's feeling. She needs them to stop and he's going to make it happen.

"What if I try to stop her kicking, hmm? That would at least be something." Robin moves down so his head is just above her stomach and begins talking. "Hello my little one, this is daddy. I'm sure you can tell from my beautifully accented voice." He says that for Regina's benefit and it seems to have done its job because he can see her lips curve into a smile, which widens his own.

"I know you're just trying to have a little fun and stretch out in there but mummy would really appreciate it if you would stop kicking her." Another kick comes and almost lands squarely against his nose. Regina jumps again and moves a hand to the top of his head to gather a chunk of his hair into her grasp. He grimaces a bit when she tugs harshly after another strong kick.

It's almost as if the baby is letting him know that she's going to do exactly as she wants, directly ignoring his request. "Ignoring me already," he chuckles, "Every bit your mother's child." He smiles in Regina's direction and she looks at him just long enough for him to catch the eye roll then she covers them up again.

He drops the side of his head against her belly to get a bit closer and hopefully make more of an impact, then begins speaking again. "I know you're getting ready to come out, but your mum needs to get some rest before that happens. So, please, baby, could you calm down for a little while? For daddy?" He sits up and waits a moment with both hands rubbing against the sides of her belly.

After about a minute with no movement he triumphantly throws his hands in the air and says, "And the award for best dad in the world goes to-" before he can finish Regina whacks him on the chest. "Oi! What was that for?"

"You are being an idiot, and idiots get hit." Regina answers with a smug smile on her face. He may be a goofy idiot, but he's her goofy idiot and she'll never get rid of him.

"You wound me, milady." He moves a hand to rub where she just hit him. "But I do believe I have accomplished the impossible. You haven't felt anymore kicks now have you?" He says with a cheeky grin before he leans down for a quick kiss.

"That may be true, but that doesn't mean it has anything to do with your beautiful voice." Regina says with a giggle as she mimics his accent. She truly does love his smooth voice, has told him so many times, but she can't resist making fun of it either.

"Someone's cheeky," he observes with a wide smile. "So now your making fun of me, yeah?" Regina giggles some more and nods her head. "And to think I was just trying to help you." He moves to straddle her legs and drops his hands to her hips.

"Well, it's not my fault you couldn't live up to the task." She says with a raised eyebrow.

Challenge accepted.

"Oh. Now you've done it." He says with a growl. She is going to pay for that comment, and he knows exactly how he is go to get his revenge. "You will pay for that, and I think you can imagine how."

He runs a finger ever so lightly up and down her underwear clad sex. She takes in a sharp inhale and he does it again to the same result. She starts fidgeting around a bit after the third stroke and he knows he has her. This is going to be a long morning for her if she is already this worked up, he plans on dragging things out. Not to be mean, never, only to tease. Now it's also going to provide as a distraction to her discomfort. Which seems to be working beautifully.

"Is this what the lady wants?" He questions, eyebrow raised as he twirls his finger around her most sensitive spot.

Regina opens her mouth to scold him. Not really, she is just playing along. "You damn well know what I want." He is just about to slide his hand inside her knickers, but is interrupted by the bedroom door flying open and a five year old rushing towards them.

"Daddy, Gina, it's time to get up!" Roland yells as he runs and launches himself onto the bed.

Thank goodness they hadn't moved to the undressing faze yet. Robin's torturous need to take things at a snail's pace does pay off sometimes.

Robin quickly grabs him with one arm, flips him upside down then proceeds to tickle him. "Is that right, my boy."

It's to distract him while he moves from his position still straddling over Regina's legs. The tickle monster always does the job. He shifts off to one side and continues to tickle his upside down son on his stomach, his little hands pushing and pulling at his fingers all the while.

Roland is squealing, giggling and thrashing in his father's hold. "Stop it papa!"

Robin pauses, "And what are you doing busting in here like that?"

"I heard voices. It's okay if I hear voices." Roland reasons.

"Is it now?" Robin asks before he proceeded with his tickling.

"Gina help!" Roland yells, reaching his little arms out towards her when his attempts to make his papa stop fail.

"Come here, my little Knight. I'll protect you from big bad daddy." Regina says as she grabs Roland's arms, pulls him to her side, then snuggles him in close.

"So now I'm the bad guy. I see, the two of you are conspiring against me." Robin says with a fake look of hurt and a hand on his chest.

"That is absolutely right." Regina says with a nod and a pointed look at Roland.

Roland comes back with his own response of, "Yeah!" Then sticks his tongue out at his father and snuggles closer to Regina. "I don't know what con-con-spiring means, but I'm on Regina's team."

"Well, I guess since you are both teaming up against me then I get to eat all of the pancakes by myself." Robin says casually, baiting his son. He's playing dirty, and he knows it, but he can't resist.

"Pancakes!" Roland yells, sitting up and looking eagerly at his father.

"Yes, pancakes. I don't suppose you would want any?" Roland nods his head emphatically. "Then it's too bad you aren't on my side. Traitors don't get pancakes with chocolate chips." Robin says as he stands from the bed and pulls on his robe.

"Chocolate chips!" Roland yells, standing up on the mattress. "I can be on both teams!"

"Well..." Robin pauses to tap his index finger against his chin. "I suppose that will work," he concedes, stepping closer to the bed.

Roland jumps into his father's arms and squeezes his neck. "Yay!" He yells.

"Resorting to bribery, that's a sign of weakness." Regina mumbles before she pushes herself up in the bed so she can sit up against the headboard. It's a struggle but she manages.

"Can you blame me? That is the only way he would choose me over you." Robin says as he leans down to kiss her cheek. He doesn't miss the way her cheeks redden at his comment. It's so adorable.

Him saying things like that always make her blush. The fact that Roland loves her that much makes her heart flutter. She cherishes that little boy, with his big brown eyes, his adorable dimples and his endearing little giggle. The thought that he loves her even just a fraction as much as she loves him truly makes her feel blessed.

"Alright, my boy, give Gina and your sister a kiss and we will go get started on breakfast." Robin places Roland back down on the bed and he crawls towards Regina. He places his little nose on hers and wiggles it back and forth, then leans down to kiss her belly and rub it messilly with both of his tiny hands.

"Gina?" He asks, still looking down at her stomach.

"Yes, baby?" She says as she runs her fingers through his curly hair.

"When will the baby be out of your tummy?" He's looking up at her, big brown eyes gazing into her own.

"Very soon, sweetheart." She answers, tapping his nose with her finger. Then she looks at Robin and mouths  _hopefully_ , to which he emphatically nods his agreement.

"Alright." Robin says before grabbing Roland and tossing him in the air. "You go wake up Henry and I will meet you downstairs." He places him back on the ground and pats him on the bum. Roland takes off into a sprint down the hall as he yells, "Henry! Wake up! We're having pancakes!"

Both adults chuckle at their adorable boy.

"I'll keep them entertained for a while, why don't you try to get a little sleep now that our girl is holding still." He drops his hand to her stomach to see if that is still in fact true, and bless her it is. "I'll be sure to save you some pancakes." He promises as he leans down and kisses her. He can't seem to leave her, let alone the room, without kissing her. It has sort of become their thing. Whenever one of them leaves the other, even if it's just to go down the hall, they kiss. They have both learned through their lives that the next moment is never promised, so they are going to make the most of everyone they have together.

It still takes Regina by surprise every time he does it. Being kissed just because isn't something that happens to her. But it isn't just because, it's because he loves her. He does it so she knows he loves her before he leaves her. It always melts her into a puddle.

"I love you." She mumbles against his lips.

He kisses her once more through his smile before pulling back and responding with, "And I you."

He helps her lay back down, closes the curtains then leaves her to get some sleep. Thankfully for her the baby is still behaving so she has no trouble falling right to sleep.

 

* * *

 

Down stairs Robin and Roland are busy putting the batter together. Well, more Robin than Roland. Once he has the eggs, milk, and mix together he allows Roland to drop a generous amount of chocolate chips into it. He probably should have stopped him, but he just can't bring himself to. His eyes are lighting up. After Roland takes his turn stirring it's time to start the cooking process. The minute the first pancake is flipped through the air and onto the plate, all for Roland's enjoyment, Henry comes stumbling into the kitchen and plops down into a chair at the island in the middle of the kitchen.

"I heard we're having pancakes." He says, reaching out and giving Roland a high five.

"With chocolate chips!" Roland adds excitedly, with a little hop.

"You are just in time as a matter of fact." Robin says as he places a plate with two pancakes in front of Henry and one in front of the seat next to him. "Roland go grab the syrup and sit next to Henry." Robin suggests, nodding to the fridge.

Roland scoots over to the fridge and uses his small amount of body weight to open the door. He then grabs the syrup and climbs up on the stool next to his brother. Henry takes the syrup from him and pours a generous helping onto Roland's pancakes as well as his own. They both dig in immediately and  _mmm_  at the sweet taste.

"These are great, Robin, thanks." Henry says with a half chewed bite in his mouth. "You get better and better every time you make them."

"Thank you, lad. I'm glad you're enjoying them." Robin looks over his shoulder flashing Henry a smile. "Anything is better than burning them I suppose." Robin was quite horrible when he first started but he is really beginning to figure out the cooking process.

Henry nods his agreement before asking, "where's mom?" He mumbles just after shoving another bite into his mouth.

"She's still in bed, luckily for you." Robin turns and raises an eyebrow at Henry as he crosses his arms over his chest. "If she could hear you talking with your mouth full you'd be getting a scolding about now." Henry blushes slightly before he takes a thick swallow and apologizes. Robin nods his acceptance and continues. "Your sister kept her up last night so I told her to try to get some more sleep." Robin says as he finishes up the pancakes and sits down next to Henry to start on his own breakfast.

"Papa?" Roland asks as he sits on his feet so he can be a little taller in order to look around Henry.

"Yes, my boy?" Robin says before taking his first bite of food.

"How is the baby going to get out of Gina's tummy?"

Robin chose the wrong moment to swallow and chokes on his food. He was in no way expecting that question. Who would be? He coughs and coughs until he is able to catch his breath, then takes a small sip of his morning coffee.

Henry pats him on the back a few times while he chuckles. "Good luck with that one," he laughs before getting up, rinsing off his plate and going back up stairs. He is definitely leaving to let Robin handle that question.

Robin coughs a few more times and takes another sip of his coffee before he gets his breathing fully under control. When he finally does he moves into the chair Henry left. "What made you ask that, son?" Robin questions as he turns his chair towards his boy.

"Because I want to know. I asked Henry and he told me to ask you because you knew more." Roland said with a shrug of his shoulders.

Clever boy that Henry. "Well, my boy. How do you think the baby will get out of Gina's tummy?" Yes, he is stalling, but who would blame him. His five year old just asked him to explain child birth. He had sworn long ago never to lie to his son, no matter what the issue. This is going to be rough.

"One of my friends from school said that they come out of the Mommy's belly button, but I don't think that's right." Roland says with his face all scrunched up. Robin can see his little brain working hard to figure this out.

"Why is that, son?" Robin asks while running his hand through his son's hair. He really is adorable when he's trying to work things out.

"Gina's tummy is so big, so that means the baby is big. How will it fit through her belly button?"

"That is true. What do you think happens?"

"I think the mommy poops the baby out. Is that right, daddy?" He asks, sitting up a little in his chair. He wants to know if he's right in his thinking.

"That is very close, son." Robin stops and rubs his hand on the back of his neck. He needs a second to think about how to explain this to a five year old. "Girls have, sort of a..." What's the G rated way to say this... "Another place on their bodies like their bum, but it's just for babies." Not really but I'm going with it. "The Mommy's have to push the babies out of that part of their bodies almost like you do when you go to the toilet. Does that make sense, son?" He really hopes that does the trick and doesn't confuse his son further.

"I think so. Where is the other place?" Roland asks looking up at his father, his brown eyes big and round with interest.

"It's between the Mommy's legs." It shouldn't hurt to tell him that.

"Is that why I saw you talking in between Gina's legs? So you could talk to the baby?" Roland asks, tilting his head to the side.

Robin turns beat red. The darkest red imaginable. It did hurt to tell him that.

His son had seen him doing something very inappropriate for his little innocent eyes. Okay get it together, you have to play this off, be convincing Locksley. "Yes, my boy... I- I was trying to talk to the baby." He stumbles out as he runs his hand through his beard.

He said he would never lie to his son. Sex is the exception.

"Oh, okay. Thanks, papa!" Roland says as he hops off the stool and stands on his tiptoes to reach his plate on the island then takes it over to the sink.

"Son," he clears his throat, "When did you see me talking to the baby like that?" Robin asks as he stands to take the plate from his struggling son and place it in the sink for him.  
Roland shrugs his shoulders. "I was being quite so I could sneak in and you wouldn't see me. When I peeked through the door you were talking to the baby and Gina was making weird noises." He scrunches his eyebrows together like he's thinking back to what he saw, trying to figure out what it was exactly.

Dear God. At least Roland doesn't seem any the wiser as to what they were actually doing. But he can tell he's picturing it at the moment and it makes him turn even redder. Thank goodness he doesn't dwell on it because he starts talking again shortly after.

"Henry came and shut the door, he told me you guys needed some adult time and took me in his room to play video games."

Bless that boy. Robin will have to remember to thank him, if he can muster up enough courage to approach the subject.

Roland finishes his story then immediately turns and runs out of the room, he almost bumps into Regina in the doorway in his hurry to get upstairs.

"Hi, Gina!" He greets, looking up at her.

"Hi, sweetheart." She greets as she reaches down to touch his cheek.

Roland suddenly walks right up to her, wraps his little arms her hips, buries his head below her stomach and begins speaking rather loudly. "Hi baby, this is your brother. I can't wait for you to come out of Gina's tummy so we can play." Then he sprints away and up the stairs.

Regina is left standing with her mouth open and her eyebrows knitted together. She looks over at him and places a hand on her hip. "This has to be your doing, Roland would not have gotten the idea to do that on his own," she accuses.

"I know." He raises his hands in defeat. "He caught me with my head between your legs." He gestures to her lower half then stuffs both his hands in his pockets.

Regina drops her hand from her hip and her eyes threaten to pop out of her head. "Yes." Robin says after taking in her reaction. "He assumed I was trying to talk to the baby and I took the out that fell in my lap."

Regina walks to the island and slowly lowers herself to a stool. "Robin. How much did he see?"

"Not much, Henry apparently caught him and took it upon himself to distract him after the fact."

"Oh no." Regina groans and covers her face with her hands. "Oh no."

After a minute of silence she mumbles, "Is this really my life? Is this really happening? I must be dreaming."

But then Robin rubs a hand between her shoulder blades and she jumps. "This is real," she groans.

Then he says the words that she hasn't even wanted to think, he doesn't either. "It appears both of our sons have... caught us in bed together." Robin sits down next to her and drops his forehead in his hand.

...

She can feel her cheeks heat with embarrassment. This is mortifying. They are normally so careful, they wait until the boys are in bed or when they are both away at school. Thinking back, she remembers one lazy Sunday evening that they thought the boys were busy watching some superhero movie. They were both laying in bed attempting to take a nap when Robin's hand started wandering. She urged him to stop at first but eventually gave in. He had brought her to peak once with his hand then decided he wanted a little taste. He camped out down there as long as he could until Regina urged him away. That must have been the day they were caught by both their boys.

Oh! Both!

It makes her cringe. Maybe she could live with one, Roland over Henry because Roland is young and will probably forget all of this, but Henry will more than likely be scarred for life.

"How could we be so careless." Regina whispers into her palms. She can't bring herself to look at him. She is so embarrassed. She can feel that her entire face is red and she just wants to keep it hidden in her hands a bit longer.

"We weren't careless." Robin says as he rubs her back soothingly.

"Both of our sons saw us having sex, I would say that's careless." Regina mumbles, still into her hands.

"Love, come on. It was bound to happen eventually. We do it enough that I'm surprised we made it this long." He says with a chuckle. When she doesn't react he continues. "Kids catch their parents having sex, it's a normal childhood experience." She turns her head and glares at him, making it clear she doesn't think so.

"Oh, come on. Don't tell me you never caught your parents in the act." He says, smirking at her.

Regina pulls her head up and looks him dead in the eyes "No. I never did. My parents slept in different rooms as far back as I can remember. They had what mother liked to call an agreed marriage. They didn't love each other. She wasn't even capable of it, she didn't have her heart. So no, I was not subjected to that particular childhood experience." She says before dropping her head back into her hands.

Robin has learned it's best to change the subject whenever it involved her mother, and that he does, bless him. "Well, I caught my parents many a time. I've always been good at sneaking about, I don't think they ever knew. The image is burned into my brain, yes, but am I scared, no. You know full well that I lead a perfectly normal adult sex life. No permanent damage." He leans over and kisses her shoulder then runs his hand up and down her spine.

"I don't know if I would call your need to please until you are begged to stop normal," she pauses to look at him out of the corner of her eye, more smug than ever. "But I hear you. The boys will be fine." She says with a defeated sigh.

"Yes, they will." He reassures.

She is alright now, if not still a little thrown by their recent discovery, but dealing with it.

"Now, I think I promised you and our girl pancakes, yeah?" He says before getting up and bring over the plate with three pancakes sitting on it over in front of her.

She smiles up at him and takes the fork he offers. " Thank you, darling. The baby and I are starving." She says while eyeing the pancakes and rubbing her stomach. She pours a reasonable amount of syrup on them and digs in.

... 

Robin comes back to his seat and just watches her eat for a moment. He has enjoyed watching her eating habits change during her pregnancy. Before she watched what she ate and how much a lot more closely. When she reached her second trimester she began to slack off slightly. She is still a very healthy eater, there's just a little more sweets, like pancakes, and slightly larger portions, three instead of two. She also has begun to eat significantly faster in recent times. At the moment she is shoveling in a large portion of pancake. He pulls his eyes from her face to look at her plate and notices she's already half way through within the small amount of time he's been watching her. He figures he should continue to eat from his own plate if he wants to finish around the same time she does, so he begins eating alongside her.

"Did you manage to get anymore sleep?" He questions between bites. If he spoke with his mouth full he would have been greatly chastised.

Regina swallows and wipes the corners of her mouth with a napkin, like the well mannered woman she is, before speaking. "Not a lot, my back was bothering me."

"Was she kicking you?" Robin questions as he brings a hand to her lower back and rubs it back and forth along her hip bones.

"No, no more kicking thanks to you." She pats him on the thigh gratefully. "It's just really tight."

"Could it be more braxton hicks?" He knows it's still a possibility this close to delivery, and he doesn't think it's labor because they are still a week away from her due date.

"Maybe, I don't know how to tell for sure." She says just before she feels that tightening sensation again. She scrunches her face up and moans lightly.

Robin turns towards her and just watches her face to see if he can read her to judge how much pain she's actually in. He has learned by now not to trust what she tells him when it comes to her being in pain.

Her eyes are squeezed tightly closed, he can see the tension in her shoulders and hear her inhale and exhale slowly through her nose. No matter what she is planning to say to him he can see she's in pain. She is not getting away with this one. "You alright, love?"

... 

When she regains her composure she turns to face him and looks right into his eyes. Surprisingly he doesn't look worried, he just looks concerned. He also doesn't push her to answer, thankfully.

"I'm fine," she nods her head at him. Again he doesn't push, though she knows he can tell she's lying because he just keeps looking at her, waiting. She huffs out a breath. "I really am fine. The pains are very spread out and irregular. If I really am in labor it will be a while before anything happens." She pauses to places a hand on his cheek then looks into his eyes. "Don't worry."

"Alright." He mumbles reluctantly. "You're right. We don't really have to worry until the pains are coming closer together." He adds, "That's the only reason I'm not pushing."

"Thank you," she nods.

"Is it bad?" He questions as he gestures to her stomach then rests his hand on it.

"No. I've had menstrual cramps worse than this." She answered with a chuckle.

"Good, I'm glad it's manageable." He says with a quick brush of his hand across her stomach, then he drops a kiss to her forehead as he stands.

He gathers both of their plates then rinses them in the sink. "I've got an idea," he announces as he's loading the dishwasher. "Since we are going to be playing a waiting game today why don't we make it into family time. We could watch a movie, maybe play some games with the boys?"

"That sounds lovely. I'll call the boys down while you finish that." She pushes herself up from the stool and waddles, she hates that she is now waddling because of her size, to the bottom of the stairs and calls to the boys. "Henry, Roland, could you come down please." A moment later she hears little feet running down the hall with big ones following behind.

They both are rushing down the stairs with Roland yelling, "I'm going to beat you!" Henry coming back with, "oh, no you won't!"

He is clearly letting the younger boy win and it's so sweet. When they reach the bottom Roland is jumping around triumphantly. Henry fakes a sad, defeated face and congratulates Roland on his victory with a high-five before adding, "But you won't win next time."

Roland walks right up to his brother to "get in his face", or as much as he can with their significant height difference, and says, "Yes I will!"

Regina can't help but laugh at her boys. They got along so well, even when they're competing. "Boys, how would you like to have a family movie and game day?" Both boys nod emphatically at the idea. It makes Regina's smile widen. She is so thankful that they both love spending time together, as a family. "Alright, why don't you two go pick a movie, Robin and I will be there in a moment."

Henry and Roland look at each other and take off to the living room. She can't help but laugh again at how competitive they are. She walks back into the kitchen just as Robin's closing up the dishwasher and turning it on.

"You have good timing, milady," he says with a grin. It was a beautiful, big thing that makes his eyes scrunch up at the sides and the dimples on his cheeks very pronounced. She absolutely loves it.

"The boys are picking out a movie, so it will likely be something involving superheroes. Are you ready to join them?" She points over her shoulder with her thumb towards the den.

"I am, my love." He walks up to her, wraps his arms around her and kisses her sweetly on the lips, then pulls back he touches their noses together. A show of affection he knows she cherishes, and she does, wholeheartedly. He does do it often just so he can see her smile spread and reach up to her eyes, which happens every time. "Let's go join our boys." He gathers her hand in his own and leads her towards the den where they can already hear the music from the opening screen of the movie playing.

 

* * *

  

The boys are laying on their stomachs on the floor, up close to the action, while Regina and Robin wound up on the sofa with her settled snugly between his legs, leaning back on his chest.

He is slowly running his hands all over her belly and it's so soothing. She's close to falling asleep, and not very far into the movie either. She can feel her eyes drooping and struggling to stay open. That is, until her stomach tightens and her hands fly to Robin's wrists so she can squeeze something. It isn't a bad contraction, not to terribly painful, it just took her by surprise and she wants to squeeze something so she can concentrate on that and keep her face from showing her pain in case one of the boys looks back at them.

"You alright?" Robin whispers the question against her ear so quietly that she can barely hear it, which means there's no way the boys did. She nods her head and exhales slowly.

He starts running his hands over her belly and she sighs into him. The soothing touch of his warm hands calms her muscles a bit and helps her relax back into her near sleep state.

... 

During the first movie, which Robin understands to be one of the Avenger films, Regina had twelve contractions. Which means they are around fifteen minutes apart.

He figured that out because all of these superhero films are around three hours long. He just kept track of how many contractions she had throughout the movie then divided the time.

If they get to ten he is going to do something about it, no matter her protest.

"How are you?" He leans in to whisper as the movies being changed.

"I'm fine." She tells him with a nod.

"You're sure?" He rubs her stomach to hint at what he means without having to say anything. Can't risk one of the boys hearing.

She takes hold of his hands and moves them to the side as she leans back to look at him. "Yes," she answers with a small smile before she's shifting back to get comfortable again.

She really does seem fine so he drops it and watches the movie.

... 

Regina doesn't let on to the amount of contractions she's really feeling. She will have one contraction that's mild and she can get by without letting on that she's feeling anything. Then the next will be worse and she needs to grab hold of Robin's wrists to keep it from showing on her face. It's either let Robin know she's hurting every once and a while or risk the boys noticing, and Henry will notice eventually. So perceptive that boy. Robin is definitely the better option.

Every time she reaches out to grab his hand she feels the rise and fall of his chest change pattern and become slower. He starts taking slower, deeper breaths for her to follow and it helps. Helps keep her calm. She follows him, breathes in while his expanding chest pushes her forward, then let's it out slowly as she sinks back into him.

He doesn't seem worried, surprisingly, goes right back to watching the movie once she relaxes. Either he's intentionally trying to appear over the top calm, or he's really captivated by the film. It may be a bit of both.

... 

During the next movie, which is the next part to the first, apparently, he only felt her stiffen eight times which means the contractions are slowing down a great deal. It seems they are only false pains.

He thinks she's stiffening up with another but she just sits up a bit and pushes down on his thighs to shift her hips. He's keeping an eye on her until she settles again. She still looks a bit tense, but it may just be that she's uncomfortable with the seating arrangement, they have been in this position for several hours.

"Do you need to move, babe?" He moves his hands to her hips and shifts to the side so he can look at her.

"Mmm," she hums. "No, I'm fine. Just needed to shift." She pats his hand and adjusts her head on his chest.

Her answer was short and she didn't look at him when she spoke, it makes him suspicious. She hums again and closes her eyes as if she's falling asleep, that explains it.

... 

Her pain is getting much worse.

She estimates the contractions to be about ten minutes apart. She's doing her best not to let them show, to anyone. Every time a contraction starts she passes off her small jump as a shift of position. Even starts squeezing the blanket draped over her legs instead of his wrists. She focuses on keeping her breaths even and her body relaxed. Robin will notice if she tightens even one muscle.

She's cursing this seating arrangement. It was so comfortable at first, her favorite way to sit with him in fact, but it's too much contact now. They are completely touching from head to toe. Luckily he has dropped his hands from her stomach to rest one on her hip and the other behind his own head. If they were still rubbing her stomach like they were before he definitely would have been able to tell she's in labor.

Most of the contractions slow breathing and tightly clutching the blanket is enough, but every few it's not. A few times she needs to grasp Robin's wrist to make it through. That's fine. That's acceptable. Only a few times. He will probably think they're slowing down since she's limited herself to only eight wrist grabs during the second movie, even though she could have done it at least double that amount of times.

It's torture, but she's managing.

... 

When they decide to take a break from the movies and play Uno he only sees her eyes squeeze shut for a brief second four times. They clearly are just false contractions, they seem to be slowly coming to a stop.

She looks alright if not a bit paler, but she's joking and laughing with the boys and it puts him at ease. The game is going well for him until she gets a string of pick two cards and uses every one of them on him. Everytime she places one down she smirks into the pile at the center of the table and doesn't look at him.

"Bloody hell! Another?" Roland giggles at his reaction and she just shrugs. Yet again he picks up two more cards with a grumble. She must be fine, there's a gloating smile on her lips as Roland changes the color to one she apparently likes because her smile grows.

Damn. He's in trouble now.

...

It's a very good thing for her that the game is distracting him more than the movies did. Every time she feels a contraction she squeezes the underside support rim of the table. No one can see her do that. Giving him a beating is helping to distract her as well until a particularly strong contraction starts. Makes her clear her throat to disguise the surprised moan she lets out.

Her contractions are now about six minutes apart. She knows that because when one would begin or end she would glance at Henry's watch.

She is slipping further and further into the territory of active labor. Keeping this up is becoming difficult and she won't last much longer, she knows that.

When her next contraction comes at four minutes she decides she needs to get up. She won't be able to hide them now that they're this close. Six minutes was a battle she was barely winning, four is going to kick her ass.

Suddenly in the middle of a hand she announces that she needs to use the ladies room. It's a good excuse to get out of the room and figure out what she wants to do. Not to mention she truly does need to use the toilet. She's started feeling some pressure like she's about to burst at any second.

It was a poor decision to play the game around the coffee table because that meant they had to sit on the floor. Robin had helped lower her down there, much to her protest, but he will not be helping her up. She groans and tries to roll over to her side but doesn't get very far.

Robin smirks at her, she can see it out of the corner of her eye, then he reaches out to her so she can use him to stand.

She slaps his hand away and quickly says, "I can stand on my own, thank you."

"As the lady wishes." Robin says with a raise of his hands.

She struggles for a moment longer then is finally able to turn onto her hands and knees. She pushes back so she's squatting. Uh oh, bad move. There's no way she's getting out of that position without some assistance. She glances around for something she can use to push off of. Nothing.

"How's it comin, love?" Robin questions without looking over at her. He can see the position she's in out of the corner of his eye and must know she's stuck.

"Just fine, darling." She says with a roll of her eyes. She knows he's messing with her and doesn't want to give him the satisfaction of being right.

She's trying to think of some kind of way to get to her feet on her own but comes up short. The pressure on her bladder finally forces her to reach out and grasp Robin's shoulder to use it to help herself rise to her feet.

"Your welcome, babe." Robin says sarcastically after she's standing.

"Doesn't count. I still technically got to my feet on my own, you didn't move." Regina counters, with a winners smile.

Robin glances over at Henry, silently expecting him to break the tie.

"Don't look at me!" Henry says with a raise of his hands. "I'm siding with mom, no matter the evidence. I like keeping my heart in my chest." He chuckles.

"That's my boy." Regina says proudly with a wink sent Henry's way, then begins her journey to the bathroom.

"Traitor." Robin mumbles under his breath.

Henry just shrugs his shoulders.

"I heard that." Regina throws over her shoulder just as she reaches the archway.

... 

Robin just shakes his head and looks to where Regina's standing, still in the archway. He can only see her head and the top of her shoulders over the sofa but he can still tell something's wrong. Why is she still there?

"Boys, why don't you continue the game without us while I go make us a snack." Both boys nod, and Henry looks at him a little suspicious.

He glances at his watch. They just had lunch an hour ago, the snack excuse isn't going to cut it it seems. Henry looks at his face and must be able to tell he's worried.

…

Henry follows Robin's gaze and sees his mother still standing in the room despite getting up to go to the bathroom. He knows from experience that when she says she needed to go to the restroom she means it, the baby is constantly causing her to have to use the toilet. Yet, she's still there. He looks at Robin with an eyebrow raised.

Robin glances to Roland before nodding at him.

Henry nods his head once to let Robin know he got the message. He needs to distract Roland while Robin takes care of his mother.

... 

With both boys busy playing their game, one not at all aware of what was going on, he rises to go and check on Regina.

He can see she's breathing heavily and has a white knuckle grip on the archway molding. "Love, what are you feeling?" He asks quietly as he comes up behind her and places a hand on her lower back.

"I think my water just broke." She whispers into the air between them.

She still hasn't looked at him. Her gaze seems to be fixed somewhere on the floor in front of her. "You're sure, babe?" He asks calmly. He feels bad for asking, but she had said she needed to go to the toilet, and she struggled for a while to get up, he could have just had an accident.

The entire time he's been next to her he hasn't looked down to the floor for confirmation. He's too concerned with looking to her face to read her expression. He glances down at the floor quickly and there's a small puddle between her feet. She speaking again and draws his eyes back up to her face.

"I'm fairly certain," she says with a small nod of her head.

She still appears to be in a state of disbelief. But calm, though, uncharacteristically calm, in fact. It's very unsettling. She usually isn't this calm and quiet. In these types of situations she's usually the one barking orders and telling people what to do. The fact that she's standing there, calmly breathing, is getting him worked up. But he isn't going to show it.

He isn't smelling the distinct smell of urine, it has to have been her waters breaking then. "Alright." It's her body, she would know the difference. "Let's get you upstairs and cleaned up." He takes her hand to guide her upstairs but she stops him. When he looks back to her face her eyes are squeezed shut and her mouth is open in a silent moan.

"Breathe, Regina," he encourages as he moves back towards her to stand in front of her. She's holding her breath and he knows that isn't good for her, or for the baby.

He can feel her inhale and exhale as much as see it when she finally starts to breathe again. It's harsh and pain filled, makes him cringe. She's clearly in pain, a great deal more than she was in the beginning of the day. Or a great deal more than she's been letting on to.

"What do you want to do?" He questions when he sees her body relax.

She takes a few breaths to steady herself before she says, "I want to continue the family day."

Robin's eyes go wide. "Regina, you're in labor. Real, actual labor. Your water just broke."

"I am well aware." She says with a roll of her eyes. "Labor lasts a while. I would rather labor here, with my family, than in the hospital."

"You just want to stay here until it's too late to go to the hospital so you can have the home birth you so desperately want." Robin says with a scoff and a disapproving shake of his head. He can not understand why, when there is a perfectly good hospital a few miles away, she wants to have a home delivery. The hospital is safer, cleaner, more people around if something goes wrong.

... 

"I don't know why you are so against having the baby here in our home instead of a hospital. I would be much more comfortable here." That should be all that matters. She's the one that's actually having the baby, why should he get to decide where?

"Because a hospital is so much safer." He says that a little louder than he should. He also didn't seem to realize both of his hands are raised and clenched, after looking at them he drops them immediately. They have just had this argument so many times before, she can't really blame him, it's frustrating that they're doing it again. He takes a breath and lowers his voice. "What if something goes wrong?"

"Nothing will go wrong. The baby is healthy, I am healthy, stop worrying so much." She pulls her hand from the molding to pat his cheek with it.

"You don't know that, Regina." He places his hand on hers at his cheek then turns his head to kiss her palm. "Not for certain."

"Women have been having babies at home for centuries." She reasons. If they were still in the Enchanted Forest she would be having the baby in their home with a midwife like her sister.

"Yes," he shoots back. "And dying from it."

She crosses her arms over her chest and rests them on top of her belly. "Didn't Marian have Roland in your tent?" Come back from that.

"You really think you'll win the argument with that?" Now he's crossing his arms. "She nearly died."

"That was because she was sick," Regina rolls her eyes, "Not because of a labor complication."

"That's not the issue and you know it." Robin says in a low growl.

"I'm sure plenty of women in your camp had babies at home, why is this any different?" She waves her hands around in frustration. She's so tired of having this argument.

"Because none of them were you!" Robin finally yells.

... 

It's the thought in the back of his mind every time they have this particular disagreement. Yes, Regina and the baby are both healthy and there will likely be no complications. Yes, women had babies at home all the time in the Enchanted Forest and were perfectly fine. But they aren't Regina.

When Marian died it tore him apart. He wasn't himself for months. He couldn't get past it for the longest time. He loved Marian, with his whole heart. But that's nothing compared to the way he loves Regina. He loves Regina with his whole soul, his entire being. If she died... if she died it would utterly destroy him. He would never be able to come back from it. He can't risk that.

"How's that snack coming?" They hear Henry yell, which pulls them out of their heated gaze at one another. That's the signal that they are becoming too loud and Roland is getting suspicious.

"Why don't we continue this upstairs while I help you change." Robin says in a rough whisper, then gestures towards the stairs.

"Fine." Regina says dryly, before pushing past him to ascend the staircase, without his help.

"Should be done in a few, you both continue with your game." Robin throws out before he bounds up the first few steps to catch Regina and help guide her up.

She swats his hand immediately and continues to climb. She makes it two more steps before she lets out a groan and drops to her hands and knees.

Robin glances at his watch and narrows his eyes at her. Those two contractions were mere minutes apart. Her labor isn't slowing down, it's increasing. She has been lying to him all day. He feels like he is about to implode with anger. Only she would suffer in silence just to get her way.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me," he mutters under his breath.

... 

She can hear the disappointment in his voice. He knows. He knows she's been lying to him all day. She really screwed up this time.

"Henry," Robin suddenly yells, and no, she doesn't want him here.

"No,"she whispers.

"I don't want to leave you, Regina" Robin rubs a hand on her lower back. "Henry will be at the ready to help."

She shakes her head and sighs. "That doesn't mean he needs to."

... 

Henry shoots up from his place on the floor and runs for the stairs where he assumes the shout of his name came from. He's right. He sees his mother on her hands and knees on the stairs with Robin rubbing her back. He climbs the stairs, all the while his eyes are glued to his mother.

He doesn't know exactly what is happening, if she's hurt, if she's in labor, if she's alright, if there's something wrong. He's scared to ask, so he stays silent.

When Robin sees him approach out of the corner of his eye he turns towards him to explain. "Apparently, your mother has been in labor all day and didn't tell any of us."

"What?" Henry says as he knits his brow together. How had he not noticed that she was in labor? He's normally able to read her better than that. He is a little disappointed in himself.

"I need you to go call Zelena while I get her up stairs. It looks like we are having the baby here." Robin drops a hand to his shoulder and nods.

Henry nods back and runs back down the steps to grab his phone that he left in the den.

... 

Robin returns his attention to Regina after Henry is gone, neither of them sense Roland approach, nor could they hear him over Regina's groans.

"Mama." The couple both hear a little voice mumble behind them.

Regina's eyes shoot open and she turns her head to the right to connect with Robin's shock widened blue eyes. His mouth is open wide as he looks down at her. They are both a little surprised.

That was the first time Roland has ever called her Mama. It makes her eyes instantly started to water. She has been waiting, hoping, for that moment for what feels like forever. They have both talked about what Roland should call her. She had suggested Mom, because that's what Henry called her. She knows he called Marian Mama, so she doesn't want to get near that.

Robin was completely for Roland calling her Mom. Roland already looked at her as being his mother, she's the only one he's really known, as he was very young when Marian died. But they both agreed to let him do it on his own, not to push him into anything before he's ready.

She turns her head to look behind her and sees Roland's terrified little face. It took her scaring him for him to finally call her Mom. She would feel completely terrible if she weren't so happy about it.

After her contraction ends, which thank God is only seconds later, she shifts so she's sitting down on the steps and opens her arms to him. "Come here, baby."

Roland lets his lower lip quiver and a tear drop from his eye. He is scared. Something is wrong with his Mama and he doesn't know what. He shakes his head and doesn't budge.

Regina's heart breaks at the fact that he is nervous to approach her. He has never done anything like this before, he always runs to her the second she opens her arms.

"Roland, everything's alright. Come here." She says gently and motions for him to come to her. He sprints up to her and crashes into her chest. She suppresses her grunt at his weight suddenly being thrust at her, cups his head with one hand and strokes his back with the other. She is so relieved that he came to her.

"What's wrong, Mama?" He mumbles brokenly into her neck.

There's that word again, the one that melts her heart. She can't help but squeeze him a bit tighter after he uses it again.

"I'm alright, baby." She shifts him off to one side so she can catch a glimpse of his face. "I promise I'm okay." She wipes the new tear from under his eye before it can fall then taps him on the nose with her finger.

"Then why are you making those noises. It sounds like something is hurting you." He says in a whimper, lower lip still bouncing.

"I know, honey. I am in a little pain,"  _understatement_ , "But you know what that means?" She asks, then waits for his response.

He wipes clumsily under his eyes with his fists before he looks up at her and asks, "What?"

"That just means that the baby is coming," she says with a wide smile to hopefully get him more excited.

"The baby's coming?" He asks, perking up a bit.

"Yes, sweetheart."

"But why does it have to hurt?" He asks curiously with his head tilted to one side. He glances down to her stomach and cautiously places a hand on it.

Why indeed.

"Because that's how babies are born, my love." She stops to think for a moment of a way she can explain it to him that won't be too graphic, and that he will understand. "My stomach gets really tight and it helps the baby move out of my tummy."

"It moves the baby out of the special place between your legs?"

Regina glances at Robin and raises an eyebrow at him. Something else that's his doing, obviously, he's blushing and averting her gaze. "Yes, baby."

"Are you going to be alright?" He goes from curious to concerned quickly.

"Oh, yes," She says quickly, "You don't have to worry, sweetheart."

Just as she finishes those words she feels the beginnings of a contraction starting to build and reaches to her side for Robin's hand. He kneels down beside her and takes it immediately. She squeezes it tightly and lets out a slow exhale. She has to stay calm and collected while Roland is still looking at her. She thought she was doing a good job until Roland looks at her face and immediately his eyes start to well up with tears.

"Your stomach is hurting again, isn't it?" He moves his hand back and forth over her stomach then shifts away from her to stand on the stairs.

Damn it. She didn't think he would be able to feel it, but he is a very smart and perceptive little boy, much like his older brother. She knows he can see the pain in her eyes when he looks into them for confirmation.

"I am, baby." She strains out then squeezes Robin's hand tighter. "But I'm alright."

"You're lying. We're not supposed to lie." He says simply. She has always told him never to lie, that lying is bad. He does seem to understand why she's lying to him now.

Now he thinks she's lying to him, great. She most certainly is not. She's in pain, yes, but it isn't the worst pain she's ever felt, she's managing it. Maybe not completely, has to concentrate and keep breathing to stop from moaning, but she's alright. She needs him to believe her. But how?

"I'm not lying, Ro," she stops and takes a shaky breath, "It hurts-" she stops again to take another breath because her voice is coming out high and tight. She can't have that. "But it's not really bad."

"It is bad, Roland." Robin says suddenly. "Mama is in a lot of pain." He looks over to Regina and her mouth is hanging open. She was going to yell at him but doesn't quite know what to say.

"Why would she lie? We're not supposed to lie." Roland is getting more and more worked up, they can't have that.

"She didn't lie, bud." Robin drops a hand to his head. "She's alright, she's going to be fine."

"She is?" He asks skeptically as he looks over at her.

"Of course, Roland." Robin moves to squat between Roland and Regina. "But you know what, my boy?"

"What?" Roland asks curiously.

"You know how when you get hurt, I take care of your boo boos and make them all better?" Roland nods. Maybe Robin is on to something.

"I am going to do that for Mama, but I need you to do something very important for me." They need something to distract Roland, and he must have something. "Can you be a big boy and help?" Roland turns his watery face towards his Papa and nods. He will always do anything that means he's a big boy.

"Do you remember how to use my phone?" Roland nods again. "I need you to go and call Auntie Snow and Uncle David and tell them that Mama is having the baby and that they need to come here to the house. You can do that, right?"

"Yes, papa." Roland runs back down the stairs and nearly collides with Henry at the bottom.

Henry dodges him at the last second and walks back up the stairs towards his mom. "Zelena should be here soon. What can I do?"

"Nothing," Regina says quickly. She doesn't want Henry to see her like this, in pain.

"You can help me get your Mum up stairs." Robin answers as he grabs Regina's upper arm and prepares to pull her to her feet.

She looks up at him and says, "No. I can get myself upstairs." Just as she on her feet, with Robin's help this time, she doubles forward in pain and nearly tumbles forward down the steps.

... 

Henry quickly climbs the two steps until he's in front of her, then takes a hold of her shoulders to steady her. Robin is surprised by his speed. A boy protecting his mother is capable of anything it seems.

"Love, just let him help. We need to get you off these stairs." She shakes her head still.

He doesn't care anymore what she wishes. Staying on the stairs is dangerous. She's already nearly fallen once, he is not going to risk it happening a second time. He hooks one of her arms over his shoulders, "Henry, take her other arm."

... 

Henry does as he's told and takes his mother's arm over his shoulders. He knows she doesn't want him here, but it doesn't hurt his feelings. It isn't that she doesn't want him to help, she just doesn't want him seeing her in pain. He still can't understand why she's so stubborn about that. He will never think of her as weak because she feels pain. Everyone feels some form of pain, it's how they handled it that make them weak or strong. She is definitely strong.

He heard her talking to Roland. He could hear the strain in her voice as she reassured him she was alright. He knows she was in pain but she covered it so Roland wouldn't be scared for her. If that isn't strength he doesn't know what is.

... 

Regina groans, half out of protest and half out of pain. She absolutely does not want Henry seeing her like this, that's a large part of the reason she hid it for most of the day. She really can't help herself though, the contractions are becoming too intense to stifle the moans from escaping past her throat.

They are both, now, taller than her without her heels, it's uncomfortable having her arms draped over their shoulders. It makes her have to stand up straighter which is causing her more pain. The straighter she stands the more pressure is brought to her lower back and the bottom of her belly.

She just has to make it up the stairs. She glances up at the task in front of her. She's only maybe five, six steps in and has nearly the entire thing left to climb.

She groans when Robin shifts and starts to pull her up the next step. He stops immediately and drops a hand to her stomach.

"Breathe, love." He whispers into her ear. "When this one's over we'll go up." He grabs her hand and pulls her arm off of his shoulder then nods at Henry to do the same.

She grasps his hand tightly, digs her nails into his palm and squeezes. She is putting all of her strength into that one hand so she won't need to even slightly tighten her grip with her other because Henry's is in it. She can feel him lightly squeezing her hand, but she is not going to do the same to his.

She's thankful that Robin is holding onto her elbow as well as her hand, because of that she is able to lean into him so he can hold her up.

... 

Henry gets nervous when she lets out a whimper and leans further forward. She's slightly off balance because she's trying so hard to keep all of her weight on Robin and none of it on him. He really can't understand why she's so stubborn when she's so obviously in pain and struggling.

"Mom, you can squeeze my hand. It's not going to break." He leans in to whisper, "I want to help, just let me."

Regina whimpers again and squeezes his hand lightly. It's not much, but it's a start.

…

Robin keeps his hold on her elbow, he can tell he still has a bit more of her weight than she allows Henry to have, but it's progress. He knows Henry is plenty strong enough to take whatever she can give him, she just needs to trust that. Henry just wants to feel useful, like he's helping in some way, the same as himself.

Regina lets out a shaky sigh when the contraction finally eases off. "Let's go, Henry." Robin takes her arm and moves it back over his shoulder when he sees her relax. "We don't have long before the next one." Henry nods at him and takes his Mom's other arm.

"Alright, love, your going to have to help us a bit." He doesn't want to just drag her up the steps, she will not appreciate that very much.

Regina gives him a slight nod and moves her right foot onto the next step. They continued to move slowly, going at the pace Regina sets. It takes an eternity but they finally make it to the top and turn to hear towards their bedroom. When they reach the doorframe they have to turn sideways so they can all get in, linked together the way they are.

"Hold her whilst I strip the bed down. I know your mother doesn't want her comforter and nice sheets ruined." Robin pulls Regina's arm back over his shoulder and she grabs onto his hand before he can walk away. He knows she doesn't want him to leave her, well, tough. "Henry, move behind her and take her hands, let her lean back into you."

Henry moves immediately. He already has one of her hands, just has to get the other. He grips the wrist of the hand that's still clinging to Robin's, but she doesn't let go. Stubborn woman.

Once Robin sees that Henry has a good hold on her he pulls his hand away and steps back. If she won't go willingly he's going to force her.

After Robin steps away she has no choice, she has to let Henry hold her. She's too unstable on her feet and has nowhere else to go. "Bastard." He hears her whisper but just walks away and doesn't even acknowledge her when she yells his name forcefully, followed be an, "Asshole."

... 

"Tell me what you want me to do, Mom," Henry pulls her body back into his so she can feel a bit more stable and he can move his head beside hers, "Because I'm not going anywhere."

Tears are pricking in her eyes from the sincerity and determination in his voice, the way he pulls her in and holds tight to her hands. She can blame the tear rolling down her cheek on the pain, but she'd be lying. Her son is growing up before her very eyes, taking charge in a very adult situation without hesitation.

She can't help but reminisce about the little boy that used to be afraid of monsters under his bed and would rush into her room in the middle of the night so she could protect him. That was long before he looked at her as the Evil Queen, when he simply looked at her as Mom. She still looks back on those moments as some of the happiest of her life. Henry was the bright spot in the mundane, repetitive routines of everyone in the town. He made every day different and exciting. That little boy that would run and jump on her bed to wake her up in the morning, excited for school. The same little boy that loved to read her bedtime stories until his eyes started to droop and he could barely hold onto the book.

Long gone is the little boy that would look up at her while his arms were wrapped around her hips. The man before her, now taller than her sans heels, is strong and brave and fiercely protective of the people he loves. The thought has her chest welling up with pride, until a contraction pulls her back into reality. She scrunches her eyes shut just as a groan escapes her throat even though her lips are pressed together.

"You have to breathe, Mom," she hears her son whisper in her ear and mmm's at him then lets out a heavy exhale.

 

... 

"In through your nose out your mouth, love." Robin throws over his shoulder as he folds the last sheet lest they wrinkle when he puts them away in the closet to get out an old one to throw over the bed. Folding the sheets is taking more time, but Henry has her well in hand. Even has her taking slow breaths, so he has the time. She'll be happier with him later when she knows her expensive sheets are nicely folded and neatly put away, even if she's frustrated with him now.

He glances back at them once he has the folded pile in his arms. Regina is pressing her weight into Henry's hands and hunching forward, Henry simply leans forward with her and keeps talking her through the pain. He's so good with her, Robin really can't understand why Regina is so against him helping. She's so much calmer with Henry, more so than she would be with him. She can tell him it's because she's holding back for Henry's sake, but she'd be lying. He's watching her now, head tilted slightly towards her son so she can hear whatever it is he's saying to her. She's nodding at him and breathing away better than she was only moments ago. Robin makes a mental note to ask Henry what he said to her, but later when there isn't a more pressing matter to attend to.

He's never more thankful for her organization than when he reaches for the old sheets after putting away the good ones. Always so easy to find things. He decides to grab an extra sheet, some pillows and towels as well. They'll likely come in handy.

When he walks back into the room they're in a slightly different position, facing each other. Regina seems to be leaning forward, pressing her forehead into Henry's chest and she's gripping onto his forearms. She's making a significant amount more noise than before, as well. She must've finally gotten comfortable with Henry being there. When Henry looks up and meets his eyes he nods at him to quietly question if he'll be alright a while longer.

... 

Henry nods firmly, then grimaces when his Mom shifts and changes her grip on his arms then digs her nails in a bit.

It hurts, yes, but it's not going to make him back down. She is finally allowing him to truly help her, he's not going to let her see that she's hurting him with her surprisingly strong grip, she'll make him leave.

He can handle it.

... 

She can feel his fingers gripping her arm and she's using it as a anchor, trying to focus on that rather than the pain. It's not entirely effective, but it's helping. She focuses on his thumbs sliding up and down on the outsides of her arms. Keeps focusing on that when a contraction starts and she wants to scream.

"I got here as fast as I could," Snow says softly as she enters the room. She's a bit out of breath, probably from running up the steps, but she walks right up to Regina and starts rubbing her back. "David's downstairs with Roland. He's going to take him to the park, get him out of the house."

Regina takes a deep breath so she can get out, "Tell him to wait for Henry," before she stands herself upright and reaches out for Snow. Snow offers up both of her hands and Regina takes them so she can shift away from Henry and lean into Snow. She needs to let him go so he can leave before things escalate any further.

"Mom, no." Henry says quickly. "I'm not leaving you."

Regina shakes her head and squeezes Henry's shoulder after he steps beside her. "You are." She says simply. "I appreciate everything you've done, but it's time for you to go, before things get worse." Which they will.

He hasn't seen anything yet.

He's just had his hands squeezed and heard her moan a bit. In a moment, when Zelena gets here, things are going to start happening quickly. She's going to be exposing herself completely. Henry does not need to see that. She's likely traumatized him enough already.

... 

Henry squeezes his mother's shoulder and drop, his forehead to hers. "I don't want to leave you," he whispers, on the verge of tears. He does not want to leave and not know what's going on. "What if something happens and I'm not here?"

She smiles and cups his chin. "I'll be fine, Henry. You don't have to worry."

Robin drops a hand to his outside shoulder and squeezes as he pulls him away from his mother and walks him towards the door. "One of us will try to text you and keep you updated."

"No you won't," Henry shakes his head. "You'll all be too distracted," then looks back at his mom.

"You're right," Robin nods. "Realistically, none of us will look at our phones, we'll all be focusing on your mom. But as soon as the baby is born one of us'll shoot you a text." He turns to face him and places a hand over his heart, "That is a promise."

"Okay," Henry relents, "That I believe." He lets out a sigh as he watches his mother cling to his grandmother for support. He only pulls his eyes away when he feels Robin's hand on his shoulder.

Robin pulls him out of the room and closes the door. "Your mom definitely won't like this." He whispers until they are a bit further away from the door. "Why don't you wait downstairs, that way you'll be close by. That's the best I can offer," he shrugs.

"I'll take it," Henry says quickly. He knows Robin is going above and beyond offering that. His mom won't like it, she may even kill both of them for it, but he isn't passing it up.

"Conditions," Robin starts as he leads him towards the stairs, "You have to stay down stairs, you can not come up for any reason. Got it?" Robin pauses so he nods reluctantly. "Good. Second, you can never tell your mother about this. I would rather not be burnt to a crisp or choked by her magic."

"Promise," Henry says with a smile.

Robin has never done anything like this before, blatantly gone against his mother's wishes behind her back. Robin has always taken his mother's side on everything with no questions. He never blamed him for it. Life is easier for everyone when his mother is happy, and doesn't he know it. But now, now he feels like they are on the same side, like they are a team. Like Robin is acting as his parent. He likes that, the idea of Robin being his dad. "Thanks, Robin."

"Of course, son." He slaps him on the shoulder then squeezes the back of his neck playfully. "I better get back before she thinks we're planning something. Sometimes your mother is too intuitive for her own good," he says with a chuckle.

"I know," Henry nods, "That's why I can never get away with anything. She always knows."

"That's because your mum is the best at what she does." Henry is a bit confused, but Robin keeps talking, "Taking care of you." Henry nods after that.

"Now, downstairs with you." Robin grabs both of his shoulders and turns him towards the staircase, then he hears the front door open and slam shut. "Perfect timing too, that must be Zelena." Just then a red headed woman runs past them on the stairs then opens and slams the bedroom door shut.

Henry starts to slowly descend the stairs, then looks back when Robin closes the bedroom door. He's going to go downstairs, but only to tell his grandpa that he's staying and to go ahead and take Roland to the park, but then he's going right back up to sit by the door.

... 

When Robin walks back into the room Snow has moved behind Regina so Zelena can kneel in front. It's a strange sight seeing the three women like that. Regina, the Evil Queen, with her sister, the Wicked Witch, between her legs and Snow White behind her holding her hands. It's a strange life indeed.

"Something doesn't feel right." Zelena says immediately upon examining her sisters cervix. "I can't feel the head." She reaches up a bit further and shakes her head.

"What does that mean?" Regina says quickly with wide eyes. She's trying not to panic, that much he can see. She's trying to wait until she has all the information, but that isn't really in her nature.

"Zelena?" Robin urges when she doesn't answer right away. He walks up to the lot of them and takes one of Regina's shaking hands.

"I'm not sure. I need to examine her further." Zelena stands up and runs a newly clove free hand back through her hair. "I need her on the bed." It's a stalling tactic, one he picks up on. She's seems certain of what's going on, but double checking won't hurt so he doesn't say anything.

Robin and Snow take a hand each and guide Regina over to the bed. It's a slow process getting her to lay back against the pillows but they get it accomplished.

Zelena crawls up the end of the bed and sits on her knees beside her sister then lifts her nightgown over her belly. "I'm going to see if I can feel what's going on." She nods to her sister before starting to press her palms in certain areas.

Regina arches her back when another contraction slowly starts to intensify then reaches out blindly to her sides for anything to grab hold of. Robin's hand is in hers instantly while the other squeezes the bed sheet. He feels terrible that that's all he can offer at the moment.

"What's going on?" Regina whispers. Zelena really is taking her sweet time explaining herself. "What's wrong?"

"She's breech." Zelena exhales as she drops her hands into her lap.

"What!" Regina and Robin both yell together.

"Two days ago you said she was head down." Regina accuses. That's true… but that was two days ago.

"Because she was then." Zelena defends herself. "I don't understand."

"All the movement you've been feeling." Robin mumbles. He continues when the eyes of all the women are on him as if they're waiting for him to explain himself. "She must've kept turning."

"These past few days, you've been feeling the same amount of movement?" Zelena asks.

"Yes!" Regina yells as she turns over to her right side towards Robin to curl into a ball with her pain. They need to stop. Getting angry with each other is only making things worse. Regina needs to focus.

"Why are we wasting time arguing?" Robin asks as he runs a hand over Regina's forehead then hooks the hair that had fallen into her face behind her ear. "The baby's breach. What do we do about it?"

"I try to turn her," Zelena answers as she stands from the bed and moves beside Regina.

"You can do that," Robin asks, "While she's still inside?" That doesn't seem possible to do without hurting one of them.

"I can try," Zelena slides her hands through her hair and ties it back in a bun. "She's likely too progressed for it to work, but it's worth a try."

Robin wants to know what the game plan is before they proceed. Really, he wants to be sure that Zelena has one so he asks, "And what do we do if it doesn't?"

Zelena waves her hand in the air and a bottle of oil appears. She pours some into her palm then rubs her hands together. "If it doesn't work the baby will just be born breech, there's nothing wrong with that."

"You're sure?" He asks.

"The only difference will be the time. It may take a little longer since she won't be able to push."

"You can't just use your magic?"

"It doesn't work like that." Zelena answers. "I can use my magic to connect with hers, but I can't touch her. Regina's body won't let me."

This is all so confusing and this isn't the time for him to understand. "Fine," he shakes his head. "Just do what you need to."

"Sis, can you roll to your back for me and bend your knees?" After she does Zelena is nodding to Robin. "Will you lift her gown." Once her stomach is exposed Zelena rubs a generous amount of oil towards the bottom and kneels in front of her. "I'm going to push upwards to try to get her out of your hips, then try to turn her. It's going to be uncomfortable," she warns.

Regina nods her head, "Anything you need to do." She looks at him and adjusts her grip on his hand. He smiles and runs a hand over her forehead. "You can do this," he assures.

"Alright." Zelena shakes her hands out then places them low on her belly. "Just take deep breaths and try to stay still. I'll be quick."

…

Regina closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, then her sisters hands are pressing unbelievable hard into her belly and sliding upward. One hand squeezes into Robins and the other comes up to fist the pillow behind her head as her sisters hands move back down and repeat the process. There is so much pressure.

Someone's taking her hand from the pillow and and holding it. She opens her eyes to see Snow pulling her hand towards her chest. "Breathe, Regina," she tells her. And she does, takes a deep breath with Snow just as her sister runs her hands up her stomach again, and it helps, a little. It really was a good decision to ask snow to help.

"Is it working?" Regina strains out after another run and nothing feels different. A contraction is starting to build and tighten her muscles so her sister freezes mid slide.

"I can't get the baby to move out of your pelvis." Zelena answers. And she's rubbing her belly more gently now, more soothing. "She'll have to be delivered breech."

"How do you do that safely?" Robin asks for her after she looks at him worriedly but keeps breathing, he knew exactly what she wanted.

"I'll have to take a hands off approach. No touching, no assisting."

Now contraction free she sits up on her elbows. "And what do I need to do?"

"You can't push." Zelena says simply.

Her eyes go wide. "At all?" That is not going to be easy. She's read about women saying when the baby's head is crowning the urge to push is unbearable. Great, something to look forward to.

Zelena shakes her head. "Not until the body's out."

Regina drops her head back and groans when another contractions builds. She only has about forty seconds between them now and it's difficult to handle. Breathing in through her nose and out her mouth has become ineffective, if she wants to get enough air in she has to breathe through her mouth. Robin and Snow breathing nice and slowly together in her ears is what's saving her.

"Are you feeling any pressure yet?" She hears her sister ask and she shakes her head. There's so much pressure in her belly, but none in her cervix yet.

"I'm going to need you standing or squatting until you do," Zelena requests, "The faster we can get her to drop the better."

…

Robin quickly moves in front of her and guides both her arms around his shoulders so she'll have something to hold onto.

Her hands are gripping hard into his shoulder blades and she's leaning down which forces him to hold up her weight. He places his hands on her waist and starts rocking them both back and forth.

It must not be a terrible contraction because she's humming instead of moaning. It isn't loud, but right before she takes a breath the pitch goes up, which means it's still strong. When it ends, what seems like ten minutes later, her grip loosens and she groans.

"That was a good one, yeah?" Robin questions, then immediately regrets it. Right after the phrase escapes his lips he realizes it can be taken two different ways. She would, of course, take it the wrong way. He needs to stop pushing his luck.

"Yeah, that one was strong." She mumbles. And she must not have truly registering what he said. She's still a little hazy in her post intense contraction state and she answered calmly, bless, she didn't take it the wrong way.

"It brought a lot of pressure in my pelvis. Zelena?" Regina glances over at her sister.

"That's good, means your really close." Zelena shakes out a towel and spreads it over the mattress. "You're going to start feeling like you need to push, but don't. Just hold tight, nearly there."

"You're doing beautifully, my love." Robin kisses Regina's arm and strokes it up and down, from shoulder blade to wrist.

"I love you." Regina whisperer before she stands up fully and places her hand on his cheek. "I wouldn't be able to survive this without you, without your strength."

"My strength? I'm scared out of my bloody mind. It's your strength that's keeping me calm." He kisses her lips then rests their foreheads together. "You're amazing, Regina."

And just like that, the moment is ruined. Regina suddenly leans forward with a groan and returns to her death grip on his shoulders.

Zelena comes and stands behind him to whispered into his ear, "Make sure she keeps breathing, if she's not breathing she's pushing." Robin nods and returns his attention to Regina. She's still breathing, but erratically. She's letting out long moans before taking deep breaths.

"Steady, love. Deep breaths." He says as he rubs her shoulder blades. She continues her moaning breaths until the contraction passes and she stands up with her forehead resting against his shoulder. "Were you pushing?" Robin questions. He feels bad for asking, but he's trying to do as Zelena said. It's only for her benefit.

"No, but I wanted to." She mumbles into his chest.

Robin drops his cheek to the top of her head and shrugs his sleeve up so he can catch a glimpse at his wrist watch. "You've got about 30 seconds before the next one, do you want to move before it starts?" He wants to make her as comfortable as he is able. If that means shifting positions until their baby is in her arms, so be it.

She shakes her head against his shoulder. "This is fine. I can feel her moving down like this."

"Then this is where we shall stay." He kisses the side of her head and rubs his hands up and down her back.

When the next contraction amps up she returns her vice grip on his shoulders and drops her body as low as her arms will allow. Robin grasps her wrists and holds onto her. He wants her to be able to hang and sway as she wishes and not have to worry about keeping her grip. Her head is bowed and her hips are slowly swaying from side to side.

She's making a different noise now from all of the previous ones. It isn't a hum and it isn't quite a moan. It's more of an uuuuuhhhh sound, a guttural uuuhhh.

She will uuuuuhhhh for as long as she has breath, take a sharp inhale then return to the noise. He's puzzled by the new sound for a spell, then he realizes, she's trying not to push.

... 

She can feel him gripping into her wrists and pulling up on them slightly. Bless him. He's holding her up entirely with his arms so she won't have to. The thought of that nearly brings tears to her eyes. Or is it the contraction? Oh, never mind. He is willing to do anything for her, to make her even the slightest bit more comfortable.

He seems so calm, almost mellowed, and it's so wonderful. Thinking about that is also distracting her from the pain. That is, until she feels something shift. Suddenly she's letting out a shriek and all of her weight is in his hands. She wants to drop to her knees so he slowly lowers her to the ground then follows.

…

"Babe, what's wrong?" He knows something shifted, why else would she have reacted so strongly.

"Okay, hands and knees," he hears Zelena say from somewhere behind him.

"The baby must have shifted." Zelena walks up beside them and kneels down behind Regina to take a look then announces, "I can see her. No pushing Regina."

Regina nods her head even though she isn't quite sure what her sister said.

"Can we move her to the bed?" Robin asks when he sees Regina relax.

"That's a good idea," Zelena nods.

…

Kneeling on the edge of the bed is a lot more comfortable for her knees, but it doesn't do anything for the burning pressure. She starts shifting her weight from her hands to her knees and lets out a groan. It feels like the muscles in her stomach are going to tear apart from being pulled so tightly, not to mention the burning stretch of her cervix.

Robin lays on his stomach in front of her so she can look down at him then tilts her head up with a finger under her chin so they are looking into each others eyes and can breathe together. There must be a great deal of pain in them because it looks like it's killing him and he moves a hand to her cheek. But he's not looking away. His eyes shift from sympathetic to determined and his new focus is helping center her.

After a few more very closely timed, insanely strong contractions in that position there's a change. There's more pressure, a more intense burning and she can't take it.

Zelena kneels behind her on the floor and rubs her hands down her thighs. "Wait just a little longer, you're so close." She reassures.

"Gaaahhh! I can't!" Regina shakes her head as she cries out. There is no way she is going to be able to hold off pushing. Her body is telling her to push and she doesn't have a choice but to listen.

"You can. Just breathe, slow in slow out." Robin says as he rubs her shoulders.

"I can see her, Regina, she's coming." Snow tells her after she sits on the bed next to her and rubs her lower back.

"See, babe, she's coming. You're so close." She looks at him and breathes one time, then closes her eyes and shakes her head.

"Just one more time. Breathe in and out," Zelena reassures. "She's coming, I have her legs."

... 

Regina is looking painfully into Robin's eyes as she breathes in and out harshly. He can barely stand to see the look of absolute pain etched on her face. He can see how badly she's fighting her body's need to push, but there's nothing he can do. "You're doing so well, my love, so well. Almost there."

He drops his hands on top of hers where they're gripping tightly to the sheet. Thankfully for him she drops her head down and squeezes her eyes shut so he no longer has to see the pain deep within them. She gives one more jarring breath before a loud sigh follows. The contraction must be over.

"I have her shoulders!" Zelena yells. "Push Regina."

He watches her body clench as she curls into a push.

…

"Come on, sis, push," Zelena yells and she grunts in response.

"Hold on." She yells followed by a gasp. She needs to breathe for a second, it's all becoming too much and she needs to stop.

"She needs you, Regina." Zelena tells her. "Your daughter needs you to push. We need to get her out."

With another deep breath she pulls her hands away from Robin's and switches them so she can hold onto him. He moves to sit on the bed and lets her drop her head on his shoulder. It's better this way, having him close. When the next contraction starts she squeezes his hands tighter and arches her back into a push.

"Push, push, push, push," she can hear her sister chant from behind her but everything else fades away and the pain takes over. She feels herself scream and then it's gone, all the pain and pressure is gone. Her mind's a bit fuzzy and she can feel her arms and legs shaking, but the sound of a baby crying slowly starts to come in to focus.

"Is she alright?" she asks shakily.

"She's perfect," her sister says then the baby is appearing between her legs on the bed all red and squirming. She's gorgeous, the most beautiful thing she's ever seen and so so tiny.

She sits back on her heels and scoops her up to bring her into her chest. Zelena stands up and lets her lean back into her, which she's thankful for because her legs are still shaking. Zelena shakes out one of the towels next to her on the bed and wraps it around the baby.

"You did so well, sis." Zelena tells her then drops her chin to her shoulder.

Regina rests their heads together and sighs. "Thank you, thank you for taking care of us."

The baby in her hold settles and she's finally able to catch a glimpse of her crystal blue eyes. "She has your eyes, Robin."

"She does?" He asks excitedly, then immediately moves next to her and cups their daughters head. "She's bloody gorgeous, looks just like you, Regina." He kisses her temple several times then she turns her head so he can kiss her lips.

He pulls away and cups her cheek. His eyes are watery and he looks so happy. "I love you," he whispers.

She didn't even realize she was crying too until he wipes away tears from her cheeks. "I love you so much." She leans up and kisses him again.

As she looks down at the miracle baby in her arms she can't help but tell him, "Thank you for giving me this." Her beautiful daughter wouldn't exist if he hadn't chosen to stay with her, to forgive her for all her flaws and past sins, and love her for who she's becoming.

"No," he shakes his head and drops the side of his forehead to hers to look down at their baby, " _Thank you_ , for this perfect little gift."

 

* * *

  

Now that they are finally settled on the bed, Regina cradling their beautiful daughter and him holding them both, everything is finally calm. After such a stressful delivery they are both just thankful there were no other complications. Regina is perfectly fine aside from being a little sore, and their little girl is perfect despite coming into the world backwards.

"What should we name her?" Regina whispers as she runs a finger over their daughters cheek.

"How about Robin?" he answers as a joke and she chuckles softly then groans and drops a hand to her stomach. "Sorry," he apologizes with a kiss to her temple. He'll have to be careful with his humor until she's healed.

"That's very funny." Regina shakes her head. "But seriously, what should we name her?"

Robin thinks on it a minute. "What about Amelia?"

"It's perfect," she sighs. "Amelia Hope."

He runs a finger over his sleeping daughter's cheek. "I love it."

Snow comes back into the room and pulls their attention. "There's someone outside ready to break down the door."

Robin smiles. "You can let Henry in."

"I'll just step out if you're alright." Zelena walks over to them and rubs the baby's head.

"I'm alright," Regina nods, "Thank you." Then Zelena's leaning in to kiss her cheek then the baby's head. "Amelia really does suit her."

…

Henry comes into the room, walks right up to them and sits on the bed. "She's so small."

Regina smiles at the way he's looking at his new sister. He looks so amazed. "Would you like to hold her?"

He looks up at her with wide, excited eyes. "Can I?"

"Of course you can, she's your sister." Henry moves closer to her and reaches for the baby and cradles her in his arms like it's the most natural thing in the world, it has her eyes watering.

"What's her name?" Henry asks. But before they can answer the door is opening again and Snow is walking in with Roland in her arms. "Mama, Papa!" He yells and squirms in Snow's hold until she puts him down and he can run and climb up on the bed next to Henry.

"She's so tiny," Roland says as he reached out and rubs a hand over her head. She fusses a bit but Henry bounces her and shushes her and she calms down immediately. He's so good with her already.

"Roland, Henry, meet Amelia Hope."

"Hello, Amy. I'm your big brother." Henry says softly. "Me too." Roland pipes in.

Robin squeezes his arms around her and nuzzles his nose into her hair. She sighs into him loops her arms over his.

Life couldn't be more perfect. And she's finally able to think that without feeling like it will be taken away the second she does.

She has Robin to thank for that.

And because of him she has three beautiful children, the greatest love of her life, and a peace that helps her finally feel at home in the world.

Life really is perfect.


End file.
